


Something Old and Something New

by heartsdesire456



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Coming of Age, Established Relationship, First Kiss, First Love, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Future Fic, M/M, Misunderstandings, Self-Discovery, Supportive Katsuki Yuuri
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-12
Updated: 2017-04-12
Packaged: 2018-10-18 00:08:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 30,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10605174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartsdesire456/pseuds/heartsdesire456
Summary: When Otabek's home rink is damaged in a fire, he and his coach get permission to train in Russia from Yakov. Yuuri and Victor offer their spare room to Otabek for the duration of his stay, and in doing so, Yuuri is given a front row look at Yurio coming to understand his feelings for his best friend, as well as the subsequent panic that ensues after he discovers his feelings aren't so 'friendly' after all.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was never meant to be so long. Kill me. I hate myself for writing so much. It isn't bad, but god this was SO MUCH LONGER THAN INTENDED.

Yuuri had never been happier to walk out into a snowstorm than he did when he landed back in St. Petersburg. Leading up to the start of the Grand Prix season, Yuuri had to go back to Japan to do press events for the JSF, and he had spent the past six weeks in Japan, away from home. 

And he did think of Russia as home these days. Over the summer, he and Victor had gotten officially engaged, and they had been living together in their – formerly Victor’s - apartment for eight months now. Their home was _home_ , and Victor was home, and even the rink here was his home rink. Yuuri had missed being home. He would soon be working hard and flying around the world to skate, but this week he just wanted to sleep in his bed, with his fiancé, and their dog, in their home. 

Victor was training this morning and would only beat Yuuri home by moments, if at all, so Yuuri didn’t get met at the airport, and he was really shocked to arrive to the first snowstorm of the year. It wasn’t a heavy snow, since it was still early in the autumn, but it made the slushy slog of hailing a cab outside the airport enough to make his feet uncomfortably wet and cold since all he had on were a pair of trainers. His suitcase was splattered with slushy grime by the time he got into the cab, and he groaned heavily as he realized how damp and gross the hem of his pants were as the cab got underway. 

As their building came into sight, Yuuri’s shoulders began to ease. He was so ready to be home. He practically ran from the car when it stopped, and he didn’t even bother wheeling his suitcase behind him, simply carrying it as he raced inside. Yuuri almost wished their apartment wasn’t so high up so that he could take the stairs, but the elevator was faster, no matter how much it felt like wasted time to stand there and watch numbers tick by. When he got off, he fumbled with his keys as he jogged down the hall. He hadn’t realized how badly he wanted to hug his fiancé and pet Makkachin until he got close to being home. His hands shook so badly he dropped the keys once before finally unlocking the door and going inside. 

“Victor?” he called as he came inside, dropping his suitcase by the door. He passed their bedroom first and saw no one, but he heard a clatter in the kitchen and smiled when Makkachin’s head popped around the corner. 

“Yuuri?” Victor called, and Yuuri beamed when Victor came out of the kitchen, still wearing his training clothes with a bottle of water in his hand. His face _glowed_ with joy as Yuuri walked up to him and didn’t even speak before hugging him. Yuuri exhaled heavily, squeezing Victor around the middle, only to truly find comfort and peace and _home_ when Victor’s arms curled around his upper back, hugging him back just as tightly. “Oh, my Yuuri,” Victor sighed heavily, and Yuuri’s throat tightened when Victor’s body relaxed in his arms. 

“I missed you,” Yuuri muttered, voice muffled by Victor’s jacket. “Fuck, Victor, I missed you,” he choked out and Victor hugged him tighter. 

“Trust me, I know,” Victor said in an equally watery tone. It was the longest they had been apart since the day Victor showed up at his family’s home in Hatsetsu. Six weeks felt like a lifetime when the longest time apart before that was only six days. 

Yuuri pulled back and looked up at Victor, who cooed and moved a hand to brush the tears away from Yuuri’s eyes as they threatened to fall. “I’m home,” Yuuri said sweetly, and Victor positively melted, leaning closer to Yuuri. “Right here. This is home,” he said, squeezing Victor some. Victor ducked in and pressed a soft kiss to Yuuri’s lips. Yuuri sighed into the tender, comforting kiss. He was exhausted, and Victor had to be tired from practice, so neither of them had any intentions of the kiss turning sexy, but the longer they stood sharing soft, sweet kisses, the more Yuuri found his hands wandering.

Victor broke the kiss and raised an eyebrow and Yuuri blushed some but grinned impishly. “Like you weren’t thinking the same thing,” Yuuri teased and Victor chuckled, but tilted his head.

“Well, I have been _six weeks_ without my fiancé,” he purred, and Yuuri shivered, all fatigue suddenly forgotten as a sharp jolt _want_ seared through his veins. “Shower?” Victor asked and Yuuri didn’t hesitate to drag him down into another kiss, backing him towards the bathroom with the force of it.

~

When Yuri got off the ice and checked his phone, he saw another message from Otabek complaining about how long it was taking his coach to pack their shit. The rink they skated at in Almaty was undergoing repairs after a fire, so there was nothing to do but find an alternate training venue so close to the start of the season, and Yakov had been kind enough – and was getting paid handsomely – to allow Otabek’s coach to bring Otabek to Russia to train there until the season started since Otabek could very well have his first competition for the grand prix season before the rink was ready to go again.

While checking apps in between messages, he saw Victor had posted a new photo on Instagram and Yuri perked up some when he saw that Katsudon was home. He had forgot he was coming back today. He would deny it until his dying day, but Yuri had really missed him. He pretended he hated the guy, but he knew that nobody really bought it anymore. Yuuri was such a dedicated, hard-working skater and Yuri respected the hell out of him for it. He was about the only other person Yuri had met that fought so hard to be as good as he was, and through all their time training together and being rivals over the past year, he had actually kind of got used to how supportive and friendly Yuuri was. 

Yuri refused to call him a friend, but he was ‘a guy I don’t really hate that much’, which was better than most people got from him. 

Yuuri had been gone for a month and a half and though Victor had, as expected, been positively unbearable in his dramatics, it had been surprising to notice the difference in the whole rink. Basically everybody had noticed the lack of Yuuri’s work ethic around the rink and it would be nice to have him back so that things felt normal again. 

Also, Yuuri finally being home meant that Yuri could finally fix Otabek’s problem with staying in a hotel with his coach. Yuuri was the voice of reason in the Katsuki-Nikiforov household, after all. 

~

Yuuri was unpacking and sorting his things to be washed or put away when there was a knock at the door. “I’ve got it,” Victor called, but Yuuri put his things aside and went to see who it was as well. He came out of the bedroom just as Yurio stomped through the door as soon as Victor opened it. “Well hi to you, too,” Victor said, but Yuri ignored him.

“Katsudon, get your piggy ass out here!” he called, and Yuuri walked out into the living room. “Thank God!” Yurio cried, and Yuuri was shocked to find himself crushed into a hug. “He’s crazy without you! He’s bitchy and insane and whiny!” he proclaimed loudly.

Yuuri laughed when he pulled away, only to stop and frown. “Whoa, when did that happen?!” he asked, realizing he was looking Yurio in the eyes straight ahead. Yurio looked smug and Yuuri laughed. “A year ago you were a good six inches smaller than me,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m pretty sure you were smaller just six weeks ago.”

“He was,” Victor called. “He’s grown an inch since you left. Yakov is freaking out about how fast he’s growing.”

Yuuri just smiled at Yurio and grabbed his elbow, dragging him over to the couch. “So how did you even know I was home?”

“Victor’s Instagram,” Yurio said, and Yuuri frowned. Yurio took out his phone and flipped through before showing it to Yuuri. Yuuri looked down and groaned.

“Victor!” he cried, glaring over the phone at Victor, who just smirked and disappeared into the kitchen again. He looked back at the photo of himself standing in front of the bathroom mirror combing his hair after the shower in nothing but a towel around his waist, taken from the bathroom doorway, with the caption _The light of my world has come back to me and my eyes can finally see again… and oh what a sight it is_ complete with some very disturbing emojis. He groaned and handed Yurio his phone back before his eyes could scan the comments beyond Chris’s numerous eggplant emojis. “I swear, I leave him alone for a month and a half and he goes mental.”

Yurio raised an eyebrow. “ _Goes_ mental? Newsflash, Katsudon, he’s _been_ mental.” He kicked off his sneakers and curled his feet up on the couch with him as he relaxed back into the corner of the arm. “Anyways, I’m so glad you’re back, because Victor’s useless and I need you two to do me a serious favor,” he said, tossing his loose braid over his shoulder as he looked at Yuuri. “Otabek and his coach are coming to train here since their home rink caught fire and it’s only a few weeks until first placements are announced. Otabek doesn’t want to live with his coach in a hotel room for a month while training but he’s too polite to ask if he can stay with someone. Can he maybe stay in your spare room?” he asked, visibly uncomfortable. “I know he’s a competitor, but he can’t afford to get an apartment.”

Yuuri frowned. “Their rink burned? That’s horrible!” Yuuri tilted his head. “Why not just stay with you and Yakov?” he asked, and Yurio rolled his eyes.

“You think _Yakov_ would let someone who isn’t his skater live in his house?” he asked and Yuuri’s eyebrows rose. “Yakov isn’t even that happy I’m friends with him because he’s not one of our skaters. He’s definitely not letting him stay with us.”

That actually sounded a lot like Yakov, Yuuri thought. “Well… um. I don’t really have a problem with it, but I also don’t see why you didn’t just ask Victor,” he admitted.

Yuri raised an eyebrow. “Look, you have to have noticed by now that Victor isn’t the kindest one in your relationship, right? You’re pretty and stuff, but you’re still the kind one. I figured Victor might get sort of bitchy about having your competition living with you since he’s your coach.”

Yuuri’s eyebrows rose. “Victor’s far nicer than I can be, and he doesn’t get bitchy,” he said, making a face. “Besides, he’s Victor’s competition, too, so it isn’t just about me,” he added, then smirked suddenly. “And don’t think I missed you admitting I’m pretty,” he said and Yurio rolled his eyes.

“You’re disgusting and give me eye-pain. Victor clearly has gone blind in his old age to think your fat ass is sexy,” Yurio drawled, clearly just fulfilling expectations in a way that made Yuuri giggle. 

“His fat ass IS sexy! His thighs, too! That’s popular now, the internet says, so I’m not weird to like him all curvy!” Victor called from the kitchen. “I think you kids even call it something these days! I believe the internet says Yuuri is ‘thick’ but with two c’s!”

Yurio groaned, snatching the throw pillow to put over his head, and Yuuri tutted, yanking it away. “Now, now, don’t smother yourself. He’s lame and old but it’s not worth dying for,” he soothed and Yurio snickered at Yuuri calling Victor old. 

“But seriously,” Yurio sighed, pouting. “I wanna beat Otabek fair and square, I don’t want him to suffer training because he’s stuck living out of a hotel room with his coach for a long time like this.”

Yuuri sighed. “What makes you think he wants to stay with us? I’m not against it,” he said quickly. “But he doesn’t really know me and Victor, and this is a small apartment. I would hate for him to be unhappy here.”

Yurio shrugged. “Otabek’s super chill. It’s not that serious. This asshole’s just too stupid to ask people for help. I thought about asking Georgi for help, but he’s insane, he would probably start turning Otabek into a weirdo like him.”

“Otabek is probably just hoping if he shows up he can talk Yakov into letting him stay with you in your room,” Victor said in a teasing tone as he came out of the kitchen. He walked over and slid into Yuuri’s lap, making him groan at Victor’s weight.

“Vicchan, you’re too big!” he complained, and Victor pouted but slid off onto the seat beside him. 

Yurio frowned. “Why did your voice get all weird when you said that?” he asked, and Victor blinked.

“Well, you know, taking a page out of my book and getting your boyfriend to stay with you,” he said, then smirked, looping his arms around Yuuri’s shoulders. “Although, I don’t have a boyfriend.” He sighed dramatically, laying his head against Yuuri’s shoulder. “I have a beautiful, wonderful fiancé.” Yuuri rolled his eyes and ignored Victor, who nuzzled against his jaw.

“Ignore him,” Yuuri comforted and Yurio eyed Victor like he was going to freak out at any moment. “What Victor means-“

“No, what Victor means,” Victor interrupted. “Is that if I had heard that my sixteen year old skater’s nineteen year old ‘friend’ wanted to stay with him, I probably wouldn’t be okay with that.”

Yurio made a face. “You’re being weird.”

Yuuri chuckled. “What Victor means is that your Yakov will be suspicious, that’s all.” 

Victor pouted. “Nooo, I mean Yakov would suspect they were having sex all the time. Why don’t you two seem to understand me?”

“Yurio is not dating Otabek,” Yuuri said in confusion. “Why would he be having sex with him?”

“Wait, huh?” Victor said, raising an eyebrow. “But… Yakov says they are.”

Yurio made a face. “Well Yakov is wrong. What the fuck?” 

Yuuri smirked some at the spots of pink on Yuri’s cheeks and he gave Victor a glance to see if he spotted it, too. “Well, I’m okay with Otabek staying if he wants to, but only _if he wants to_ ,” he stressed. “Right, Victor?”

Victor nodded. “Yeah, I don’t want him to suck because he feels weird staying here with competitors he doesn’t know well,” he said and Yurio rolled his eyes.

“It’s not that serious,” Yurio dismissed. “But cool, I’ll let him know,” he said, already taking out his phone.

~

Yakov wasn’t happy he asked for the day off to meet Otabek at the airport, but Yuri had gotten all excited about the idea of hanging out with Otabek when they weren’t training. Since they became friends, they had only got to see each other in person at Worlds back in March and he was super excited to see his friend again. 

Yuri was actually checking his phone when a shadow fell across his screen and he looked up, ready to tell whoever it was to fuck off, only to brighten when he saw it was Otabek. “Hey!” he greeted, punching Otabek in the shoulder. “You should’ve told me where to meet you, Ass Face,” he said and Otabek gave a small smile.

“I wanted to surprise you.” He looked up into Yuri’s eyes and raised an eyebrow. “You’re growing fast. At Worlds you were already my height. Now you’re taller.” He shook his head. “That’s what, four inches in twice as many months? How worried is your coach?”

Yuri scrunched his nose. “Yakov’s got me backing off on the quads in practice until I stop growing. But I’m sixteen, I’m at the age where you grow, right?”

Otabek rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t know, now would I?” he asked and Yuri grinned as he looked _down_ at his friend.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get things off of high shelves for you,” he joked, grabbing Otabek’s elbow. “Come on, let’s get your shit and get out of here before your coach catches up,” he said, and Otabek smiled and nodded, both of them breaking into a ‘sneaking’ crouch towards the baggage claims area, ducking behind columns and benches – absolutely needlessly – on their way to get Otabek’s things.

~

Victor curled himself around Yuuri’s legs and he looked below his book as Victor firmly snuggled his thigh, head resting on Yuuri’s belly. “Getting comfy?” he asked Victor, who hummed in his throat. Yuuri lowered one hand to stroke his hair, smiling to himself as Victor made a sound not unlike a purr. “For a dog person, you sure are being like a cat right now,” he said and Victor tickled him behind his knee in retaliation, making him squeak and jerk his leg free.

“I’m tired. Yakov is mean,” Victor said, his damp hair wetting Yuuri’s shirt, not that he cared. “He said I’m too old to do so many jumps in one program.”

Yuuri’s heart sank and he rubbed his hair slowly. “Vicchan, you just need to look after your knees. You aren’t old. You have just skated a long time. Your legs have held you up for so long, Yakov is afraid you will overdo it.”

Victor made a soft sound, fingers digging into the slightly soft flesh of Yuuri’s inner thigh – the only place that stubbornly held onto some fat on his otherwise muscular body – and Yuuri could feel him relax some. “My knees do hurt sometimes,” he confessed. “I can feel it. All these years of skating are catching up to me. I don’t have much more in me, _Zolotse_.”

“You don’t have many years competitively skating left, maybe,” Yuuri countered. “But you have decades left you can coach, and decades left to be the face of Russian figure skating,” He slid his fingers down to Victor’s chin and tipped his face up so he was looking at Yuuri as he said, “And the rest of our lives to be mine.”

Victor smiled and turned to press a kiss to Yuuri’s fingers, his lips touching the metal of Yuuri’s ring. “The most important gold of my life is you,” he whispered, and Yuuri rolled his eyes, used to Victor’s flights of romantics. 

“Vicchan,” he sighed and Victor nuzzled his stomach again. Yuuri put his book aside and curled his arms around Victor, holding him close. Victor relaxed against him and Yuuri smiled as he stroked his fiancé’s soft, silver hair as it dried. He enjoyed these moments where Victor sought comfort from him. Yuuri had worried for a while that he wouldn’t be able to be the supportive partner Victor needed when he started training again, because their dynamic was so based in both of them focusing solely on Yuuri’s fears and triumphs. However, when the time came that Victor needed Yuuri to just be there for him and reassure him, it came so naturally to him. When Victor showed vulnerability, Yuuri’s love for him made it so easy to want to just make sure Victor knew he was there for him.

There was a knock at the door that interrupted their snuggling and Yuuri sighed, dropping his head back over the arm of the couch. “I forgot. Otabek Altin arrives today.”

Victor chuckled. “How weird is this? We’re housing competition.”

Yuuri poked his nose. “You are always housing your competition.” He winked. “I beat you at Worlds, Otabek wasn’t in the top five. You should be more worried about me knowing all your secrets,” he teased and Victor scoffed.

“That’s why you picked such a sexy uniform,” he said in mock-seriousness. “You wanted to distract me with your hot body. So rude,” he said and Yuuri giggled as he leaned down and pecked Victor’s lips.

“Definitely. Especially why this season’s short program uniform shows some skin,” he said and Victor sighed dramatically and slid off of Yuuri and onto the floor with a ‘flump’. 

Victor shook his head. “I’m going to die,” he said, flinging a hand over his face for a moment before he rolled over and got to his feet, going to answer the door. “I’m coming!” he called, and Yuuri stood and followed him, waiting a few steps behind as he opened the door and Yurio walked in practically dragging Otabek behind him. “Hello Yura, Otabek,” Victor greeted.

“Hello,” Yuuri greeted. 

Otabek turned to face him and bowed his head some. “Thank you so much for allowing me to stay with you,” he said, then turned to Victor. “I know that you both have a lot on your plates right now so I’ll try my best to stay out of your way.”

Yurio rolled his eyes. “Like you won’t be just as busy as we all will be,” he said, bumping their shoulders together. “You gonna give him a tour or should I?” he asked Victor.

Victor smirked at Yurio and walked over to Yuuri, grabbing him around the middle to drag back to the couch. “You do it, we were busy,” he said, flopping onto the couch, tugging Yuuri on top of him, Yuuri yelped out a laugh as he fell onto Victor and nearly fell off the couch. 

“Vicchan!” he cried, grabbing onto the back of the couch to keep from tumbling off, but Victor immediately wrapped his long arms around him and tugged him down until Yuuri lay against his chest.

Yurio made a gagging noise and Yuuri looked around to see him rolling his eyes as he led Otabek past them. “They cuddle all the time. It’s disgusting. Just ignore them,” he advised and Yuuri grinned, reminded of how young Yurio really was. “If they start making out, just threaten to take photos of them having sex and sell them online.”

Yuuri looked down at Victor beneath him and smirked. “Were you as much of a rude boy as a child?” he asked and Victor rolled his eyes dramatically.

“I was nice and fun,” he stressed. “The only similarities in Yurio and I are the prettiness and being a skating prodigy at a young age. We are polar opposites in personality.” He reached up and pushed Yuuri’s messy hair out of his eyes and Yuuri leaned into his touch. “What were you like at his age?”

Yuuri thought back to being a nervous wreck and having no friends and chuckled. “Pretty much the same as I was when you met me last year,” he said. “Fat, lonely, and a ball of anxiety.” He grinned. “Not nearly as handsome as I am now,” he said, batting his eyelashes.

Victor brushed his bottom lip with a thumb and Yuuri started to lean down and kiss him, only to have someone kick the couch, making them startle apart. They looked up and saw Yurio looking at them with his nose scrunched up. “Don’t scar Otabek for life,” he said and Otabek stood awkwardly behind him. 

Yuuri just rolled his eyes and sat up, pulling free of Victor’s arms. Victor pouted at Yurio and frowned. “Otabek is an adult. I’m sure me kissing my fiancé won’t scar him for life.”

“Victor, he’s right,” Yuuri said, getting to his feet. “It’s rude to make out in front of your guests,” he said, smiling at Yuri and Otabek. “Yurio show you your room, then?” he asked, and Otabek nodded.

“You have a lovely home. I really appreciate the hospitality,” Otabek said. He looked at Victor. “And I can assure you, I won’t be scarred for life because you kissed your fiancé. It’s your home, I’m just visiting.”

Yurio grimaced. “You’re gonna regret that,” he warned. “Don’t worry, if I’m not busy I’ll take you out and stuff so you don’t have to sit around while they’re being gross and sappy,” he promised, and then grabbed Otabek’s wrist. “C’mon, let’s go unpack all your shit,” he said, and Yuuri watched in amusement as he realized that Yurio was taller than Otabek now, made all the more obvious by the ponytail bouncing visibly above the level of Otabek’s head as they walked away and back into the spare bedroom. 

“Teenagers,” Victor dismissed, earning a laugh from Yuuri.

“Teenagers,” he agreed.

~

Yuri flopped across the bed in Otabek’s new, temporary living quarters while Otabek put his clothes away in the dresser. “How cool is this room, though?” he asked, rolling across the bed to look at the tall windows covered in thin, blue curtains along the whole far wall of the room. “Like, so much better than a shared hotel room, right?” he asked, and Otabek nodded.

“Definitely. I was not expecting a room like this,” he said, looking at his _own bathroom_ off to the left of the dresser. “So… are Yuuri and Victor- well-“

“Rich as fuck?” Yuri asked, and he grinned when he saw Otabek grimace but nod. “Victor’s totally rich,” he said, sitting up on his knees, heels on either side of him. “I mean, he’s been the face of figure skating for over a decade. He probably gets more from sponsors than every other Russian skater together.” He looked around. “This was his place before he moved to Japan last year. He never sold it or anything, kept paying the rent and shit even though he didn’t live here.”

Otabek hummed. “What’s Yuuri like? I actually never met him before the final last year when they kind of dragged us into dinner with them.”

Yuri tried to think of how to answer that without sounding like he actually hated Yuuri. “He’s… a weird guy, but not in a bad way.” He waved a hand. “I’ve told you about stuff about him before, but he’s kind of the nicest person I know,” he admitted. “I complain because I can, but he’s not really all that bad.”

Otabek looked at him curiously, seeming to realize exactly what Yuri had tried not to let anybody realize. “You look up to him,” he said, not even asking a question. 

Yuri groaned, but nodded. “Yeah. I do.” He flopped onto his belly dramatically. “He’s just probably the only person who actually works as hard as I do. I’m not saying the rest of you are lazy fucks, but he’s seriously dedicated in a way that I really admire. I sacrificed _everything_ to be a figure skater, and he did, too.”

Otabek closed the dresser drawers and came over to crawl onto the bed beside where Yuri was laying facedown. “We all sacrifice a lot. And it doesn’t look like he’s suffering that much anymore,” he said, looking around the room.

Yuri sat up, grinning. “Yeah, well, he still has to put up with Victor all the time,” he said, and Otabek snorted. Yuri smiled. “I think you’ll be fine, though,” he said, looking around Otabek’s room. “Victor might get on your nerves some, but Yuuri keeps him in check pretty well. The dog might bug you, too, but he’s not that bad, for a dog.”

Otabek looked around. “I just hope they don’t have really loud sex because this wall goes to what I assume is their bedroom, since that’s all that is missing from the tour,” he said, tapping the wall behind the head of the bed. 

Yuri mimed gagging. “I hope not, too, cause I’d probably kill myself in that case, and you’re the only person I actually like, so it would suck if you killed yourself.”

There was a thud from out in the living room and a squeal, followed by giggling, and Otabek grimaced as Yuri looked at him. When he turned and faced Yuri, he shook his head grimly. “It was nice being the one person you like for so long, then,” he said in mock solemnity, making Yuri snicker.

“Don’t worry,” Yuri said, patting Otabek’s shin. “I’ll buy you earplugs.”

“Yes, please,” Otabek replied, making Yuri smile as he leaned against Otabek’s knee.

~

Otabek was a pretty quiet guy, Yuuri realized quickly. He wasn’t rude and he didn’t just ignore him and Victor, but he was quiet and polite. Unlike Yurio, who made himself at home without even being asked, Otabek could be watching TV when Yuuri got home and immediately offer to go away and let Yuuri have the living room for himself. He wouldn’t eat anything unless they were having a meal and asked him if he wanted to join them. There weren’t a lot of snacks in their kitchen, since Yuuri had to watch his diet, but Otabek wouldn’t even drink juice, he just had water apart from the protein powder he added for his breakfast. It was like he was deathly afraid of putting them out in some way, which Yuuri found amusing, since he was Yurio’s friend and Yurio didn’t mind eating things Victor even said not to and putting his feet on their couch and basically treating their house like his own.

After several days, Yuuri finally cornered Otabek when he got home from training. “Will you help me with something?” he asked after Otabek put his things away in his room.

“Yes, of course,” Otabek said, and Yuuri smiled innocently. 

“Great! I need to go shopping and I can’t read labels in Russian. You read it, right?” he asked, and Otabek nodded. “Good! Victor usually helps me, but he’s training,” he explained, grabbing his keys before Otabek could back out. 

The walk to the store wasn’t a very long one. Yuuri didn’t tell Otabek that usually, Victor had their groceries delivered from a big supermarket. Yuuri just liked to go pick up a few things so that not everything was planned at home. It was also a good way for him to learn to recognize words he needed to know, even if he couldn’t read a newspaper or anything yet. He also had to get used to the money. Victor was worried Yuuri would get ripped off since he had no idea if he was paying a ridiculous price for things. Yuuri got really tired of trying to mentally figure out exchange rates when he had a history of long-term use for so many different currencies. 

The lady that ran the store, an elderly lady that Yuuri saw at least once a week, greeted them when they entered and Yuuri smiled. “Good afternoon,” he said, waving to her. 

“And who is this?” she asked, looking at Otabek curiously. “Did you trade your husband in before you even married him?” she asked and Otabek looked uncomfortable, so Yuuri laughed.

“No, this is just a friend visiting,” he said.

She perked up. “Oooh, another one of those pretty skaters, huh? All you boys are so handsome,” she said, making Yuuri blush and duck his head.

As they moved down an aisle, Otabek lowered his voice. “I didn’t know you spoke Russian,” he said, nodding to the lady Yuuri had spoken to in Russian.

“I’m learning,” he explained. “Victor learned enough Japanese to carry on a conversation when we lived with my parents, so I couldn’t be one-upped again,” he said with a sneaky grin. “He’s fluent in three languages and can get along in Japanese. I only speak English and Japanese, so I need to catch up.” He looked across a shelf. “You know any languages to teach me?” he joked.

Otabek, to his surprise, offered something about himself after that. “I speak six languages, but my French isn’t fluent,” he said, and Yuuri’s eyes widened. 

“ _Six_? Wow,” he said. “I thought Victor was impressive speaking English, Russian, and French!” He tapped his chin as he grabbed a bag of something without really looking since he was mostly just interested in getting to know Otabek. “So, you speak English, Russian, and I assume Kazakh. And you said French. So what’s the other two?”

Otabek shuffled along behind him as he moved down the aisle. “Uzbek and Arabic. My mom’s parents are Uzbekistani,” he added.

“Cool!” Yuuri held up a can for Otabek. “What’s this say?” he asked, and Otabek looked at the can.

“Canned herring mouths,” he explained and Yuuri scrunched up his nose.

“And people say we eat weird stuff in Japan,” he said, shaking his head. “Weird Europeans.” He put the can back on the shelf and continued on. “I’m looking for canned tuna,” he explained. “Victor eats so much fresh, healthy food, but he still loves canned tuna.” He scrunched his nose. “Disgusting, right?”

Otabek shrugged. “Good source of protein without needing to cook it. Not as good as fresh fish, but it’s alright in a pinch.” He reached out and grabbed something from the shelf, offering it to Yuuri. “Here,” he said and Yuuri thanked him. “How is Victor doing in training?” he asked, and Yuuri thought back to Worlds, the only place Otabek had skated against Victor last year when Victor returned for the latter half of the season. Otabek had placed higher than Victor, who had struggled to get going with only Europeans and Worlds all season long with no Grand Prix season or Russian Nationals to lead up to such big competitions. 

“He’s going to be amazing this season,” Yuuri said warmly, thinking about how excited Victor was to finally show Yuuri his full routine. Since they didn’t train at the same time, what with Victor being his coach, he hadn’t seen it at all. “He says his short program is kind of fun and silly, and his free skate is very dramatic and emotional. I’m looking forward to seeing him skate again.” Yuuri bit his lip. “Victor’s always skated for me, you know?” he said. “Since I started skating, he’s always been the one to beat. Last year the only reason he didn’t skate was the only reason I did so well. I’m excited to see how I really measure up against him.”

“Someone has to beat him at some point,” Otabek said, surprising Yuuri by offering up more conversation rather than letting it drop. “Europeans and Worlds weren’t really fair to count, since he was just skating an old routine. This year, we get to see if anybody can really beat him.”

Yuuri smirked. “I have extra motivation, remember?” he joked. “If I win a gold at the Grand Prix final, I get a husband out of it. None of the rest of you have quite as much to push you.”

Otabek frowned some. “I’m worried about Yuri,” he confessed, and Yuuri smiled, delighted to have Otabek opening up some. “He’s grown so much so fast. I haven’t seen him skating since I got here, but he has to be suffering with that. Jumps are all about knowing your body, and growing that fast, he probably doesn’t anymore.”

“I worry, too,” Yuuri agreed. “I was away for six weeks and came back and he’d grown an inch! He’s grown six inches in less than a year. It’s crazy! He’s either going to stop growing and have it all have happened in one go, or he’s gonna be taller than Victor by the time he’s an adult.” They walked around the corner and Yuuri looked at all the snacks. “Hmmmm. What snacks do you like?” he asked, tapping his chin as he looked at various packages of snack foods. He snuck a look at Otabek, whose eyes were drawn to a box of cookies. Yuuri reached out and grabbed them, putting them in his basket. “I can’t eat snacks often but I’m sure after I eat one or two somebody else will finish them off,” he explained and Otabek narrowed his eyes at him.

As they walked through the store, Yuuri grabbed sparkling water and Otabek made a surprised sound. “Yuri loves that stuff,” he said, and Yuuri grinned.

“Who do you think it’s for?” he asked, shaking his head. “He acts like he can’t stand us, yet he shows up almost every day after training to eat our food and play with our dog.”

Otabek raised an eyebrow. “He likes your dog? He doesn’t really like dogs.”

“He pretends he doesn’t like dogs,” Yuuri said with a smirk. “Makkachin is so sweet though, and Yurio likes to snuggle with him and watch TV and eat all our food.”

“And you’re okay with him just taking over your house like that?” Otabek asked. “I know you’re his friends, but I can’t imagine most people would like that very much.”

Yuuri smiled fondly as he watched Otabek eyeing something on the shelf and he reached out and grabbed it without even knowing what it was. “He’s a teenager with no other kids around to hang out with and he lives with his coach and choreographer, who are both old enough to be his grandparents. Victor and I just let him be a kid without treating him like one. You teenagers are finicky creatures,” he teased and Otabek actually chuckled. “I was like him at that age. No friends, solely determined to do well skating. I wasn’t half as good,” he said with a snort. “And I was still in school.”

Yuuri had been surprised to discover when he moved to Russia that Yurio wasn’t in school at all. He had dropped out of school when he decided to move up to the senior division and had no plans to pursue the rest of his education. Yuuri knew that not as many figure skaters went to university like he did, but it was odd to him to imagine so _entirely_ devoting one’s life to a sport that only had a shelf-life of the first third of a person’s life, if that. It was one of the things that really showed how devoted Yurio was to becoming the best he could possibly become. Yuuri didn’t like to face that he would soon have to look at a life beyond figure skating, but it was a reality they all had to face some day. 

“I’ll be interested in seeing what he does after he finishes skating,” Otabek said, taking the thought right out of Yuuri’s head. Otabek smiled slightly. “Can you imagine Yura commentating or coaching?” he asked and Yuuri couldn’t help but bark out a rather unattractive laugh at the thought of Yuri trying not to swear while commentating a skating event. 

“Oh my God, he would get fired so fast!” he giggled, shaking his head as he grabbed more snacks. He and Victor would never eat any of this stuff, but they could persuade Otabek to actually help himself to some of it if it never got eaten otherwise. “What about you? You’ve got ages before you retire, but do you know what you’ll do after?”

Otabek shrugged. “Probably become a trainer or reporter or something in the sports world. Most skaters do.” He looked at Yuuri. “What about you? You went to college. Did you study to become something?”

Yuuri snorted. “No, I studied anthropology with a focus in the history of dance,” he said and Otabek’s eyes narrowed as if he doubted that was even a real thing. Yuuri grinned. “I was a dancer before I was a skater. Not many people know that,” he mused, thinking about it. “My ballet teacher was the one who told me to try figure skating. It was only ever going to be a hobby until I saw Victor skating and thought ‘wow, I can be like that’.” He blushed some when Otabek gave him a strange look. “What?”

Otabek looked down, and Yuuri could see he was holding bad a smile. “That explains the pole dancing,” he said, and Yuuri’s eyes widened.

“Oh my God, you were there that night?!” he asked in horror and Otabek nodded, unable to hold back a snicker. Yuuri groaned, putting a hand over his face. “I’ll never live it down. Never. I’ll be ninety and someone will bring that up!”

Otabek laughed. “It was funny, so you can’t blame people.” He casually grabbed something off a shelf and dropped it in the basket and Yuuri had to hold back from celebratory throwing a hand up. “It’s just strange. Don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t seem like you would be graceful until you start skating. Or dancing, I guess,” he added. 

Yuuri snorted. “Oh I’m not. I have no idea why the ice or music makes my limbs start listening to me. I trip over things and slip on icy sidewalks all the time. I’m lucky I haven’t broken both my legs since I moved here in the winter. It was colder in Detroit, and it snowed more, but it didn’t get all slushy and re-freeze all the time like it did here this past winter. I looked like a newborn deer every time we tried to walk to the rink.”

As they turned the corner and started down another aisle, much to Yuuri’s joy, Otabek offered more topics of conversation on his own and, by the time they finished shopping, with a basket full of things mostly for Otabek, Yuuri felt like the strange distance was falling away and Otabek was like a friend more than a random person living in their home. He hoped that now that he had broken the ice, so to speak, he could help Otabek and Victor start interacting better as well when they were all home that night. 

~

Yuri laid across Otabek’s bed with his phone out, feet kicking back and forth up in the air while Otabek lay beside him on his back, reading a book. “Why don’t you just read on your phone?” he asked, and Otabek shrugged but didn’t say anything. Yuri turned his phone and tapped the camera app, biting his lip as he snapped a photo of Otabek’s face in profile. 

“Are you taking photos of me?”

Yuri smirked. “Yep.” He started typing. “‘Beka the nerd reading a book like an old person. Hashtag nerd.’ How’s that sound?” he asked.

Otabek smiled slightly, not looking away from his book. “Says the blond,” he teased and Yuri’s jaw dropped.

“Take that back!” He leaned his foot over and poked Otabek’s leg. 

“Why? It’s just a fact,” Otabek said, reaching over, again without looking, to twirl the end of Yuri’s ponytail around his fingertip. “See? Blond.”

Yuri narrowed his eyes and jerked his hair out of Otabek’s grasp. “And you’re implying I’m a dumb blond!”

“Maybe you are,” Otabek said and Yuri pouted at him. Otabek glanced over when he didn’t respond and rolled his eyes. “Yuri, come on-“

“You called me dumb,” Yuri said with a pout, hoping his eyes didn’t give away that he was just trying to fuck with Otabek and wasn’t really upset.

Otabek sighed, putting his book down on his belly. “Yura, don’t do that-“ Yuri sighed and cast his eyes away, hoping he looked as sad as he wanted to. Otabek sat up on his elbows. “Yura, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it, I was just teasing-“

“HA!” Yuri cried suddenly, pointing at him. “I got you, fucker!” he cried and Otabek gaped and then narrowed his eyes after shutting his mouth with a snap. 

“You little-“ Yuri squealed when Otabek dove in one move, fingertips going right to Yuri’s ticklish ribs.

“BEKA NO!” he screeched, squirming around trying to escape Otabek’s tickling. “BEKA!” he squeaked, kicking and wiggling until he half hung off the bed, head hanging back over the end of it while Otabek tickled his belly. Otabek managed to get a hand under his shirt and Yuri squealed with laughter. “NO NO NO, NOT THERE, HA NOT THERE!” he cried, laughing so hard tears were filling his eyes. “OTABEK ALTIN YOU STOP THAT-“

“Oh Yurio, you better not be murdering my houseguest!” Victor’s voice suddenly rang through the apartment, startling them both so much that they instantly stopped their tickle war, only for Otabek letting him go being enough to make Yuri fall off the bed head first, hitting the floor with a thud.

“Ow!”

“Are you okay?!” Yuri panted from his spot on the floor and looked up at Otabek leaned over the end, looking apologetic. “I’m sorry,” Otabek said and Yuri groaned, rolling onto his front.

“I fucking hate that guy,” he said, pushing himself up to his hands and knees. “I’M GONNA SHAVE YOU HEAD IN YOUR SLEEP!” he shouted at Victor. 

“Please don’t do that until after the wedding!” Yuuri called back. “I don’t care if he’s bald after our wedding photos are finished, but until then, just punch him!”

Yuri snorted and sat up. “See why he’s secretly my favorite?” he asked and Otabek smiled from where he lay on the bed, facing him.

“Not much of a secret if you told me, is it?” Otabek asked and Yuri shrugged. 

“You’re my friend, you get to know secrets,” he said, biting his lip in a moment of surprising vulnerability. He wasn’t used to mushy-gushy friend crap, but Otabek made him feel like he could tell him things like that. He pushed himself to his feet. “Come on, I’m hungry. Let’s eat their food,” he said, and Otabek didn’t hesitate to put his book aside and follow Yuri out of the room.

~ 

Yuuri, for all his shortcomings, was not an unobservant person. He was a little blind about himself, as Victor would readily tell anyone, but he wasn’t blind when it came to others. Which was why, currently, he was looking over the back of the couch at where Yurio and Otabek were getting snacks in the kitchen and he noticed something he hadn’t before.

“But Beka,” Yurio whined, pouting at Otabek. “There’s only one cookie left,” he said. He ducked his head a little bit and Yuuri could see how he made himself seem smaller and more vulnerable as he looked at Otabek. “I really like that kind of cookies.”

Yuuri had to put a finger to his lips to keep from snorting when Otabek visibly caved and moved the cookie from his pile of snacks to Yurio’s. Yurio brightened immediately and bumped their shoulders together. “Thank you, Beka! Now come on, there’s a youtube video of all the times JJ crashed I’ve been wanting to show you,” he said, grabbing his plate and his bottle of sparkling water. Yuuri watched as he excitedly waited for Otabek to get his things and then led the way back to the guest room, looking bright and happy in a way he rarely showed anywhere else than around Otabek.

When they were gone, Yuuri looked down at Victor, who was watching TV from his spot lying in the cradle of Yuuri’s legs with his head on Yuuri’s stomach instead of a pillow. “Hmm,” he said, stroking Victor’s hair. “Have you ever noticed how Yurio has Otabek wrapped around his little finger?” he asked with a small smile and Victor just hummed.

“I’m pretty sure Otabek is just like Yurio, someone who doesn’t have any friends.” He snuggled closer to Yuuri. “Otabek’s very serious, so having a friend changes that some.”

Yuuri bit back a smirk as he looked down at Victor. Part of him felt bad for the idea that popped into his head, but it was too easy. “Vicchan,” he said in his sweetest voice. “I’m thirsty,” he said, stroking a finger along Victor’s hairline. “Could you get me some water?” he asked, and Victor lifted his head to look at him. “Please?” he asked with wide eyes that rivalled Makkachin’s sweet puppy eyes. 

Victor, as expected, positively melted. “Anything for you, _Zolotse_ ,” he said readily, pushing himself off of Yuuri to hop off the couch and go to the kitchen. Yuuri covered his mouth this time to hide his smirk as he watched Victor go grab a glass and immediately start getting him water. Yuuri glanced in the direction of the guest room and nodded to himself, having confirmed his own suspicions. 

He knew exactly what Yurio was up to.

~

As soon as Otabek and his coach got off the ice, Yurio was supposed to go on with Yakov, who was working with Victor for now. With so many skaters they had a system where only a certain number of skaters could train on the main ice at once, to keep from worrying too much about collisions. 

Yuuri had finished up earlier, but he wanted to stick around to watch Victor skate. Even now, after over a year being friends with Victor and eight months of their relationship being romantic, Yuuri still devolved into that eleven year old boy who couldn’t stop watching his sports idol sometimes when he watched Victor skating. The fact he got to watch Victor Nikiforov practicing still danced across his brain even though he’d actually had sex with Victor Nikiforov just that morning. Victor his coach was different from Victor his fiancé and both of them were still different from Victor Nikiforov, Yuuri’s skating hero. Victor thought it was the cutest thing ever that Yuuri was still so impressed by him when he also knew how Victor’s hair looked when he first woke up, all tangled on one side, and how gross his breath was after eating canned tuna, and how whiny Victor was when he had a cold.

To be fair, Yuuri thought, Victor – for some incredible reason – thought everything about Yuuri was the cutest thing ever. Yuuri had no idea how the hell he landed a beautiful, glamorous lover like Victor, but whatever it was, Victor was genuinely just as smitten with him as Yuuri was with Victor. Yuuri could do just about anything and Victor would still think it was adorable.

Victor spun to a stop in front of where Yuuri stood and he smiled, lifting a gloved hand to wipe his forehead. “How was I?” he asked breathlessly, leaning across the barrier. “Did I do good, Yuuuuuuri?” he purred, and Yuuri grinned.

“You always do well,” he said, leaning in to peck Victor’s lips. 

Victor smirked, raising his hand, touching Yuuri’s jaw. “You’re such a liar, but I love you, so it’s okay,” he said, stealing another sweet kiss. “Mmmm,” he moaned and Yuuri knew he should pull away before Yakov yelled at Victor, but Victor curled his gloved hand around his neck and pulled him in, kissing him more slowly. Yuuri sighed, tilting his head just so, and Victor’s hair brushed his eyebrow. Yuuri would never get tired of kissing Victor, of that he was positive.

“VICTOR NIKIFOROV, STOP KISSING THAT MAN AND GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE!” Yakov shouted from across the rink and Yuuri startled, jerking out of the kiss and making Victor pout at him.

Yuuri nodded to Yakov. “You better go,” he warned, and Victor whined, pushing away.

“But Yakooooooov!” he whined, as if he were a child, not a grown man.

Yuuri blushed and leaned against the barrier again, watching as Victor skated back to Yakov, who stood with his arms crossed, looking annoyed. “SORRY, COACH YAKOV! VICTOR DID IT!” Yuuri called and Yakov looked over at him with a disappointed look. Yuuri just bit his lip, ducking his head.

“You two are disgusting.” Yuuri looked over at Yurio, who was stepping up to the ice next to him. “Defiling the rink like that,” he said, shaking his head. 

Yuuri smirked. “You’re just jealous,” he said and Yurio looked at him like he was insane.

“The fuck?!” he spluttered and Yuuri faced him.

“You have a big crush on a certain somebody, but you don’t get to kiss him when he gets off the ice, now do you?” he teased. Yurio narrowed his eyes at him.

“What the hell are you talking about?” he asked skeptically. Yuuri reached out to pat his head and Yurio ducked. “GET OFF ME, KATSUDON!” he squawked and Yuuri giggled at his reaction, ducking and swatting at his hand like a kitten would.

“Yura.” Yuuri snickered when Yurio immediately turned and looked at Otabek, who was coming to a stop beside them at the gate. “Why are you being mean to Yuuri?” he asked with a small frown. “That’s not nice,” he said and Yuuri smirked at the outraged look on Yurio’s face.

“Oh my God since when are you on his side?” he demanded, pouting at Otabek.

Otabek shrugged. “Cause he’ snice?” he asked, and Yuuri beamed.

“You look great out there, Otabek,” he said, nodding his head to him as his coach handed him his water bottle. “You’re doing very well in training.”

“Thank you,” Otabek said, putting on his blade guards as he stepped off the ice. He put a hand on Yurio’s shoulder to balance while putting on his other blade guard, and Yuuri saw Yurio glance at the hand on his shoulder and then slowly blush. He knew he was right about Yurio. “What did you think?” he asked Yurio, hand still on his shoulder.

Yurio smiled suddenly, in contrast to his grumpy frown, and he nodded. “You’re doing so well, Beka. Your triple axel is probably the best looking one I’ve ever seen!”

Otabek smiled. “Thanks,” he said, pulling Yurio into a one-armed hug, and Yuuri bit back a snort over how easily Yurio latched onto him and melted into the embrace. 

Poor Yurio, Yuuri thought. He didn’t even realize what was happening. 

~

Yuri had a problem. It was bad.

“Yura, what do you think about this one?” Otabek asked, trying on another jacket. He looked at himself in the triple mirror, turning around to face Yuri, whose eyes were drawn to Otabek’s shoulders in the leather jacket he was trying on. 

Yuri had never in his entire life had a _crush_ on somebody, and it wasn’t until Katsudon brought it up that he realized what the fuck that wiggly feeling in his insides was when he looked at Otabek sometimes was, and holy shit, he did _not_ need this.

“Yura?” Otabek turned to face him and shrugged the jacket off, revealing his rippled arms that were bared by his muscle shirt. The way he pushed his arms behind him as he shrugged the jacket off made the gaping sleeves of the muscle shirt show the muscles of his back rippling in the reflection of the mirror behind him. “Yuri?” Yuri jerked his eyes back to Otabek’s. “Are you alright?”

Yuri nodded quickly. “I like that one.” 

Otabek reached for the other jacket, this one more rugged looking. It had zippers and buckles and looked pretty badass. He shrugged it on and turned around, looking at his reflection. “What about this one?” he asked, and Yuri’s eyes were drawn to the line of his shoulders, which were always broad but looked even more so in that jacket. 

“That one,” he said, eyes drawn to the way Otabek’s torso tapered to narrow hips. Otabek was shaped just like a man should be shaped, Yuri thought, and then immediately grimaced at his fucking brain. 

Otabek clearly saw him and turned around, frowning. “Yuri, are you okay? You don’t look well. You’re not getting sick are you? I told you not to eat that second ice cream.” 

“I’m fine,” Yuri said firmly.

Otabek stepped closer. “You’re sort of red. Do you have a fever?” he asked, and _reached out to touch Yuuri’s face_. “You don’t feel warm,” he said, and Yuri almost whimpered at the warmth of Otabek’s palm against his cheek before he jerked away.

“I said I’m fine, fuck off!” he grumbled, and Otabek rolled his eyes.

“Alright, alright.” He smiled gently. “You know I won’t judge you if you feel bad, Yura,” he said in the kindest tone, looking up into Yuri’s eyes. Yuri nodded and Otabek turned around, shrugging off the jacket. “Alright, help me decide on a shirt,” he said, and to Yuri’s horror, he grabbed his shirt and just pulled it off, baring all those muscles.

All. Those. Muscles.

Yuri nearly choked on air. “Shouldn’t you go into a stall?!” he asked, gesturing to the changing stalls behind them. 

Otabek shrugged. “It’s just my shirt. I take my shirt off at the gym and nobody cares,” he said, grabbing one of the shirts to try on, his back still to Yuri, showing off all those _damned muscles_. 

It had happened. Yuri was finally in hell.

~

Yuuri was home alone, both Otabek and Victor at the rink, when the hammering started on the door. He went to it quickly, fearing something was wrong with one of the neighbors, but when he opened the door, Yurio burst past him, stomping through the apartment. “Um, hi?”

“YOU HAVE RUINED MY LIFE!” Yurio snapped, diving face first onto the couch. Yuuri watched in confusion and slight amusement as he gave a loud, dramatic groan, not unlike a dying cow, and his upper body rose and fell with the sound before he actually kicked his feet a few times. 

“Are you alright?” Yuuri asked and Yurio lifted his head to give him a dark, threatening glare. 

“No, I’m NOT alright!” he snapped, turning to scream into the pillow again, kicking his feet again until he finally went limp, head turned to the side so he could breath. “You have ruined my life,” he repeated, quieter now, and Yuuri sat on the coffee table so he could look into Yurio’s eyes.

“And how did I do that?”

Yurio gave a grumpy pout. “I didn’t know I had a crush on my best friend,” he grumbled. “And then you said I did and I realized what that weird feeling was and now it _suuuuucks_ ,” he whined. “Oh my God, I can’t even look at him without blushing and then I get angry to cover up how embarrassed I am and then _he took his shirt off_ ,” he hissed, eyes wide. “We were at the store and he was buying a new jacket and some shirts and he just took it off! Right there in front of me! Just- just got shirtless!” he said almost wildly.

Yuuri grimaced in sympathy, thinking back to coming home and finding Victor standing naked in the onsen. “Ah. I can see how that would be uncomfortable-“

“I CAN’T LOOK MY BEST FRIEND IN THE FACE CAUSE YOU POINTED OUT I HAVE A STUPID CRUSH IT'S NOT UNCOMFORTABLE IT’S THE WORST THING EVER!” Yurio cried dramatically, flopping around on the couch again. “What do I DO?! How do I stop?! This is stupid and I don’t like it! Crushes are stupid! I hate this,” he whined, rolling around onto his back. “Fix it!” he demanded, pouting.

“Oh Yurio,” he sighed and Yurio didn’t even complain about him calling him that. Instead he just drew his knees up and picked at the torn knee, his face looking exceptionally boyish in his little sulk. It wasn’t often people really considered just how young he was, but Yuuri could definitely recognize Yurio’s behavior as that of a sixteen year old child. “I can’t fix that you have a crush. I’m sorry for pointing it out. I thought you were aware of what you were doing. You flirt with him all the time-“

“I WHAT?!” Yurio cried, looking panicked as he sat up, turning to face Yuuri with his green eyes as wide as saucers. “I do _not_ -“

“You pouted at him and batted your eyelashes so he would let you have the last cookie,” Yuuri said gently. “You sit on his lap when you watch TV even though you’re taller than he is now. You talked about him constantly before he came to stay and now that he’s here, you’re always with him.”

“But- but that’s cause he’s my best friend! Not cause of crush stuff,” Yurio argued. “I’ve seen you and Phichit together, it’s the same!” 

Yuuri chuckled. “I’ve definitely never pouted to get my way with Phichit. Only Victor is defenseless against my eyes.”

“It’s just stupid,” Yurio grumbled. “Liking people is stupid. Boys are stupid,” he added. “I thought I didn’t like people. I mean, all that romance crap is so dumb,” he said. “Look at the gross shit Victor does now that he’s got you,” he said, and Yuuri scoffed.

“Yakov has told me he’s never seen Victor happier or more focused as a person than he is now, and I’ve never felt less like falling apart at the seams than I do with Victor,” he defended. “That ‘romance crap’ isn’t all useless.”

Yurio narrowed his eyes. “Then fine, if it’s not useless, you tell me how the fuck I’m supposed to deal with this.”

“I can’t help you there-“

Yurio spluttered. “BULLSHIT!” he cried, smacking a pillow. “You’re the one that ruined my life by pointing out that I’ve got a crush, you fuckface, so now you have to tell me what to do!” he demanded.

Yuuri rolled his eyes. “I’m no help there-“

“You’re engaged to _Victor Nikiforov_ ,” Yurio snarled and Yuuri raised an eyebrow.

“And you think I know how the hell that happened?” he asked incredulously and Yurio rolled his eyes. “I’m serious,” he stressed. “Victor just waltzed into my life and decided, ‘oh, I like this one!’ and I just went along with it.” He shook his head. “To this day, I have no idea what the hell Victor saw in me. I know he loves me now, but I will never know why the hell he decided to fly across a whole continent to be my coach and fell in love with me. He just says, ‘it was destiny,’ when I ask him,” he explained. 

Yurio seemed to deflate and he snorted. “Victor is a fucking weirdo,” he said, and Yuuri couldn’t help but chuckle.

“I won’t argue with you there,” he said, leaning closer like he had a secret to tell. “He hangs his scarves on hangers in the closet. He’s definitely strange,” he said, and Yurio scrunched his nose. Yuuri reached out and patted his knee. “Count yourself lucky. I fell in love with that weirdo, I’m stuck with him for life. You just get to observe his weirdness from a distance.”

Yurio finally cracked a small smile, deflating some. “True. At least Otabek isn’t crazy.” He groaned, putting his face in his hands. “I don’t wanna have a crush! It’s so stupid!”

Yuuri sighed. “No matter how I say this, it’s going to sound patronizing,” he said, and just went for it. “But I promise I’m not trying to tease you when I say you’re _sixteen_ ,” he stressed gently. “You don’t make friends easily and you have a best friend that’s attractive, and it’s entirely possible your hormones are just messing with your head.” Yurio glanced up, looking slightly hopeful. “Otabek is nearer to your age than anybody else you know, and definitely that you like to talk to and hang out with, and he’s a cute boy. You’re surrounded by men who like other men, which can only make you consider it at least subconsciously. I spent about a month convinced I was in love with Christophe Giacometti just because he jokingly said I had a pretty smile,” he stressed. “I was like you, I didn’t have a lot of friends, especially not my own age, and a hot guy called me cute, and it took a whole month for my brain to sort out I wasn’t actually in love with Chris, and that was just after one weekend.”

“Ew,” Yurio said, grimacing. “Jesus Christ, your taste in men is terrible. I thought Victor was bad, but _Giacometti_?” 

With a roll of his eyes Yuuri snorted. “Oh please, he’s a hot guy who actually noticed I existed, and I was eighteen, give me a break.” He blushed. “If I tell you something, will you promise not to tell Victor?” he asked, and Yurio raised an eyebrow. Yuuri bit his lip and ducked his head some. “Chris was my first kiss,” he confessed, and Yurio mimed gagging.

“Oh _gross_! You probably have so many diseases,” he said bluntly. Yurio cringed. “Ew, get away from me, you probably have diseases that haven’t even been studied yet.”

Yuuri rolled his eyes. “Oh come on, I do not-“

“You probably have diseases humans aren’t even supposed to get,” Yurio countered.

“I just kissed him!”

“Yeah and that’s all it takes!”

“You’re so mean-“

“And you’re gross!” 

Yuuri was having so much fun bickering with Yurio he didn’t hear the door open until Makkachin ran over and barked, alerting him that Victor was home. He looked over and saw Victor smiling at the two of them. “Well what are you two up to?” he asked, looking at how they were in each other’s faces.

Yuuri smiled. “Yurio has a crush and I’m helping him figure out how to deal-“ Yurio gasped, looking betrayed, and then turned to Victor.

“HE MADE OUT WITH CHRISTOPHE GIACOMETTI!” he said, pointing at Yuuri, who gaped.

“You said you wouldn’t tell!” he hissed and Yurio smirked evilly.

“I actually never said that, you just took my silence as presumption.”

Victor frowned. “Yuuri, what’s he talking about?” he asked and Yuuri sighed, putting a hand over his face.

He was going to smack Yurio one day, he just knew it. 

~

Thankfully, Victor had only pouted for a little while after Yurio left about Yuuri keeping secrets before Yuuri managed to seduce him into making out on the couch like teenagers, which brightened Victor’s mood quite effectively. 

“Honestly, I’m more surprised Chris never mentioned it,” Victor said from where he lay on the couch beneath Yuuri. Yuuri nuzzled his jaw, brushing his lips over a slightly red mark right at the hinge of Victor’s jaw where Yuuri accidentally bit him a little bit while tonguing his earlobe a few minutes earlier. “He always talks about men with me.”

Yuuri stroked Victor’s abs absently as he lifted himself up on one elbow to look down at him. “Like I said, I was eighteen, so he would’ve been nineteen. I’m sure he hasn’t mentioned every man he has kissed in the decade you’ve known him.” 

Victor smiled, still absently fondling Yuuri’s thighs, even though neither of them had taken their make out session towards a turn to something sexy. “No, but most of them weren’t my fiancé,” he said, narrowing his eyes playfully. “Emphasis on the ‘most’, since one of them was.”

“It’s not like we made out,” he said, tracing the line of Victor’s abs. “It was my first kiss and, contrary to popular evidence, Chris is actually a nice guy.” He smiled bashfully. “The only reason he greeted me in China by fondling my ass is that he knows I’d laugh at it, not be upset he touched me there. He’s always been one of the nicest guys in the skating world to me. Other than Phichit, most of them ignored me or didn’t know who I was, but he was friendly. Some of the younger kids, now, I’m friends with, but of the older guys, it was really only ever Chris that talked to me.”

Victor smiled. “Well, I can’t blame you. Chris isn’t just popular with guys because he’s sexy. I can see how he would want his friend to have a nice first kiss,” he said, scrunching his nose. “It’s just gross to imagine, because as sexual as he is, I’ve never managed to look at Chris like that, and he’s kissed my fiancé.” 

Yuuri grinned, pecking Victor’s cheek. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m such a loser, he’s the only man besides you that’s ever so much as kissed me. I kissed a girl once at a party in college because I was drunk, but I didn’t like it very much. I do like women, I just don’t like drunkenly letting one stick her tongue down my throat.”

“I wouldn’t care if you were as free with yourself as Chris is,” Victor reassured, turning to peck his lips. “It’s not like I haven’t had my fair share of lovers. Honestly, I find it odder you never had boyfriends or girlfriends. Even if you didn’t have real feelings for them, most people date someone just for expectations.”

“Nobody expected much of me,” Yuuri admitted softly. “I was more popular with fans back home if I was single, and I didn’t have friends besides Phichit really in America, and my family knew I wasn’t really interested in finding someone, so nobody expected me to date.” He smiled at Victor, pecking his lips. “I didn’t expect to ever get married. Then you happened.” He brushed a kiss along Victor’s jaw. “Chris was just a nice friend who kissed me at a party before competition started one competition weekend. You’re the only man I’ve ever wanted to keep.”

Victor hummed, sliding his hands up the back of Yuuri’s shirt, stroking his skin. “Now what’s this about Yurio with a crush?” he asked, and Yuuri grinned down at him.

“I told you,” he teased, bumping their noses. “Wrapped around his little finger.”

Victor frowned. “ _Otabek_?” He narrowed his eyes. “Isn’t that boy a little old for Yura?”

“Vicchan,” Yuuri sighed, rolling his eyes. “Didn’t you ever have a crush on someone older than you?” he asked, poking his side. “And he isn’t really that much older. Yuuri’s sixteen and Otabek’s only two years older.” He smiled. “Yurio is freaking out. He didn’t realize he had a crush, so since I teased him about it, he’s realized he does. It’s so cute. He’s such a teenager.”

Victor grinned. “Yakov will be delighted. I was a handful at Yurio’s age, so he’s sure to be annoyed he’s got to deal with it again.” He reached down and squeezed Yuuri’s butt, making him giggle and wiggle away. “He’s already fed up with me constantly going on about you and being so distracted.”

Yuuri swatted his hand away, tugging it up to kiss and pin between their chests. “Mmmm, well, I’ll have to avoid watching you train.” He grinned. “It isn’t my fault you can’t keep your hands off me.”

“No,” Victor agree, smirking. “That would be your mother’s fault, for giving birth to such a sexy, distracting son,” he said, tugging Yuuri down to kiss his neck and make him giggle and squirm.

“Vicchaaaaan,” he whined, only to squeak and giggle louder when Victor grabbed him and started rolling them around so he could be the one lying on top, tickling Yuuri all the time. 

~

Now that he was aware of his crush, Yuri wasn’t sure how to act around Otabek. Lying on his bed suddenly made Yuri as nervous as hell. They just lay listening to music like always, but for some reason now, Yuri was hyperaware of their proximity. He was so close to Otabek he could smell his hair gel and feel the warmth coming off of his bare arm.

Otabek visiting during summer and constantly wearing shirts that showed off his arm muscles was the worst thing Yuri had ever endured, and that included training with Lilia. Yuri had never noticed someone’s muscles like he was now, and it was frustrating. It wasn’t like Otabek was the buffest guy he knew or anything. He was pretty sure Georgi had bigger muscles, even. 

But it was _Otabek_ with those muscular arms. And when he stretched, his abs showed. And Otabek had just enough chest hair peaking from the loose collar of his top to reinforce that he was a _man_. Yuri had the faintest blonde hair on his chest, no more obvious than the hair on his arms. He still only had to shave every few weeks to keep from having fuzz on his upper lip. Otabek wasn’t a boy like him, though. Even if he wasn’t that much older than Yuri, his body was so very masculine. He was short and stocky, but it just made his muscles bulkier and more defined. 

Yuri couldn’t help but wonder what those strong muscles would feel like under his long, slender fingers. His hand was sooo close to Otabek’s arm, and he wanted so badly to just _touch it_.

“Why do you keep fidgeting?” Otabek asked, and Yuri jerked his eyes up from Otabek’s arm to look at his face. Otabek raised an eyebrow. “You keep squirming around.”

To avoid confession, Yuri just shrugged. “I’m just not comfortable for some reason.”

Otabek, to his horror, rolled over onto his side and _grabbed Yuri’s waist_. “Come here,” he said, and Yuri fell onto Otabek’s chest. Otabek curled his arm around Yuri and hugged him close.

“What the fuck?” Yuri spluttered somewhere near Otabek’s collarbone, and Otabek just rubbed his back.

“You can’t fidget around if I’m holding you,” he said, and his voice _echoed under Yuri’s face_. Yuri relaxed some and Otabek hugged him with both arms. “Just relax and listen to the music, Yura,” he said softly and Yuri swallowed hard as he tried to do so. 

Yuri’s only thought was, ‘holy hell, this snuggling shit feels so nice’ as he lay there, trying not to freak the fuck out over the boy he had a crush on _holding him_. He carefully moved his hand and rested it beside his face on Otabek’s chest and Otabek rubbed at his back absently as he finally relaxed some. “This is dumb,” Yuri mumbled and Otabek just snorted.

“It keeps you from fidgeting,” he countered, and then shushed him when Yuri started to open his mouth. “Just listen to the music. Maybe you can pick my free skate music for me.”

Yuri had to admit, it would be kind of fun to tell everybody Otabek’s music was his doing. “Okay, fine,” he said curtly. “But only cause if I don’t you’ll pick fucking Tchaikovsky.” It was gonna be a long afternoon _cuddling_ with Otabek.

~

Yuuri heard footsteps behind him as he stirred the soup and knew who it was without looking. “Do not touch the bread, Vicchan,” he said and he heard the sound of something hitting the plate again and smirked at his correct guess. 

“But Yuuuuri,” Victor whined as he stepped up behind Yuuri and slid his arms around Yuuri’s waist. He rested his chin on Yuuri’s shoulder, hugging him. “I’m hungry.”

Yuuri grinned, glancing at him. “And I’m cooking dinner. You just have to be patient,” he said, and Victor pouted at him. Yuuri lifted the spoon from the soup and blew on it before holding it up for Victor. “Taste,” he said and Victor tasted it, humming. Yuuri raised an eyebrow. “Good?”

Victor sighed, rubbing a hand over Yuuri’s stomach. “How is it you can cook so well? Yakov says you asked him for a recipe and he didn’t even give you measurements, just ingredients, and this tastes amazing,” he said, looking down into the pot. “You really are your mother’s son,” he said and Yuuri grinned at the compliment, because he knew that’s what it was.

Yuuri knew very well that Victor _loved_ his mom’s cooking. Victor pretty much just loved his mom. “She needed help in the kitchen and I like food,” he said simply, confirming Victor’s suspicions. “Is it really good?” he asked, looking down into the pot. He had never tried cooking this stuff, but Victor had mentioned that the one thing he had always liked about living with Yakov was this soup he made. Yuuri still couldn’t tell what it was called, because Yakov mumbled when he gave him a list of ingredients, but he had decided to cook it for Victor as a surprise, only to have Victor find the list of ingredients and then go ask Yakov about it. 

“I said it was delicious,” Victor repeated and Yuuri ducked his head slightly.

“Yeah, but you might just be saying that to not hurt my feelings,” he muttered, knowing damn well Victor would definitely do that

“Lies!” Victor said dramatically, pressing a kiss to his neck. “You’re a wonderful cook. I would be so fat if you cooked all the time.”

Yuuri giggled. “Then for once I could make you run up hills until you lose weight,” he teased.

Victor finally pulled way. “Is Yurio staying for dinner?” he asked, and Yuuri stirred the soup once more before turning around to talk with Victor face to face. Victor sat at the counter and Yuuri came to lean against the island across from him. “I haven’t seen either of those two since I’ve been home.”

Now that he thought about it, Yuuri hadn’t either. He hummed. “I didn’t think about it, actually.” He stood away from the counter. “I’ll go ask,” he said, squeaking when his walk past Victor earned him a teasing smack to the bottom. “Vicchan!” he chastised with the worst attempt at a glare ever, only getting a lascivious smirk in return.

Yuuri ignored him and went to Otabek’s room. He tapped on the door and heard a soft, ‘come in’, so he opened it and stuck his head in, only to stop and smile at the precious sight he found.

Yurio was curled up asleep with his head tucked under Otabek’s chin and his hand fisted in Otabek’s shirt. “Awwww,” he said, and Otabek smiled.

“I can’t really move without waking him up,” he whispered, holding his book up so Yuuri could see it was almost finished. 

Yuuri put a hand over his lips to keep from cooing out loud. “He looks so much less murderous in his sleep,” Yuuri whispered, looking at how soft and pretty Yurio’s face looked when he wasn’t scowling. He took stock of their position and raised an eyebrow. “What were you doing?” he asked, and Otabek shrugged the shoulder Yurio wasn’t lying on.

“He kept fidgeting so I figured he’d stop if I put an arm around him. We were just listening to music, but then he fell asleep so I grabbed my book,” he explained. 

Yuuri nodded. “He trains very hard. It’s no wonder he’s tired,” he said, and Otabek nodded. “Well, we’re having dinner soon, so I was going to ask him if he’s going to stay. I’ll let you deal with waking him up,” he said, backing out of the room, careful not to make any noises until he was away from Yurio’s range of hearing. 

Yuuri couldn’t wait to tell Victor exactly what he saw. Victor would probably be sad he didn’t have his phone to take a photo of sleeping Yurio.

~

Yuri was somewhere between sleeping and awake when a soft chuckle rumbled beneath his cheek. He turned his head and nuzzled the warmth beneath him. “Nnnnng,” he grumbled and something stroked his hair off his cheek. “Huh?” He blinked open his eyes and saw a pair of deep brown eyes looking down at him. He blinked a few times and the eyes narrowed some with a smile. “Beka?” he mumbled and Otabek chuckled again, making the sound vibrate in his chest, which was still beneath Yuri’s face. Yuri turned his head a little and found his hand fisted in Otabek’s shirt, his thumb dangerously close the nipple his twisting had exposed due to how baggy Otabek’s shirt was.

“Wake up, Sleeping Beauty,” Otabek murmured, stroking his thumb along Yuuri’s cheekbone. “You fell asleep listening to the music.

Yuri mumbled and rubbed his face against Otabek’s shirt before sitting up. He slid a hand into his hair and grimaced at how lumpy it was from sleeping weird. He pulled his ponytail holder out and let his hair fall around his shoulders, shaking it to free it of tangles. “How long was I asleep?” he asked, stretching his arms up high, only to squeal and jerk them down when Otabek poked him in the side his shirt exposed. “Bekaaaa!” he whined, elbows tucked into his sides. He looked over his shoulder, glaring and Otabek grinned from where he still lay back against the pillows.

“You’re cute when you sleep,” Otabek said, reaching out to brush his cheek. “You have wrinkles from my shirt,” he explained and Yuri groaned, fighting a blush as he rubbed his face. 

Yuri yawned and rolled his shoulders, only to still when Otabek sat up and put his hand on his shoulder. He looked over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow as Otabek leaned close enough that his breath tickled the hairs on Yuri’s neck. Yuri shivered and swallowed hard, ignoring the tingling rolling down his fingertips. “Beka?” he asked softly and Otabek brushed his hair out of his face. Yuri’s tongue felt too big for his mouth as he looked into Otabek’s eyes and saw something he didn’t understand in them. Otabek leaned close enough Yuri could feel the heat from his body against his side.

For a horrifying moment Yuri was so sure Otabek was going to come so close he could feel his body against him, but instead, Otabek raised his hand from his shoulder to pull his hair back and start braiding it loosely. “Here,” Otabek said, gently braiding his hair. “Give me the tie,” he said, and Yuri managed to make his hands work to hold it up. Otabek finished the braid and tied the end, smiling as he traced the length of it with his fingers. “Your hair is getting so long,” he said, patting the bits around his face flat again. 

Yuri scrunched his nose. “How do you know how to braid hair?” he asked, and Otabek shrugged.

“Hey, I’ve got a sister,” he dismissed. He grinned. “Anyways, now that you’re awake, I’m supposed to tell you that Yuuri cooked dinner and wanted to know if you’re staying, since we’re gonna eat soon.”

Yuri perked up immediately, focus dragged away from his extremely unfortunate feelings for Otabek at the thought of Yuuri’s cooking. “Oh fuck yes!” he said, throwing a fist in the air. “Katsudon makes cooking his bitch!” He whipped around and glared at Otabek threateningly. “Don’t ever tell him I said that,” he said, and Otabek just snorted and rolled his eyes.

“Your secret is safe with me,” he said and Yuri bounced off the bed, walking a bit quickly out of the bedroom towards the kitchen. 

“IS THE FOOD READY YET?” he called, his stomach rumbling already at the thought of something delicious for dinner. 

~

Yuuri tried not to smirk as Yurio finished off a _third_ bowl of soup and relaxed back in his chair with a groan, hands going to his belly. “I’m gonna die happy now. I’m gonna be as fat as Katsudon and it’s worth it.”

Victor tutted. “Yuuri is not fat, and you shouldn’t be mean,” he said, poking him in the tummy, which made Yurio whine and curl away from him. “Especially when he feeds you.”

“You didn’t shy away either,” Otabek said as he stood and took his hand Yurio’s bowls to put in the sink. “I saw that second bowl,” he teased, looking at Victor knowingly.

Victor sighed and looked at Yuuri, who grinned. “Your diet is useless when I’m cooking,” Yuuri teased and Victor shook his head in mock solemnity.

“I am weak for everything about my precious fiancé,” he said dramatically. “Everything he does is wonderful and perfect.” Victor smirked suddenly and Yuuri immediately knew he was going to say something he shouldn’t. “And his food is almost as delicious as he is.”

Yurio mimed gagging. “Ew, fuck off you pervert!” He looked over at Otabek as he came back. “Beka! Save me from their grossness!”

Otabek chuckled. “You don’t know the half of it, I walked in after practice the other day and both of them had clearly just gotten out of the shower. At the same time,” he said and Yuuri felt his cheeks heat instantly. He had really thought Otabek hadn’t noticed. Victor looked smug and Yuuri kicked him under the table, narrowing his eyes at him until he looked suitably cowed. 

Yurio gave them both a disgusted look. “Do you ever think about anything besides gross things?” he asked, nose scrunched up. “Beka save me,” he whined, holding his hands up. “I’m too full to run away, carry me!” he said with a pout. Otabek rolled his eyes but, to Yuuri’s surprise – and clearly Yurio’s as well – he grabbed him up out of the chair, one hand under his knees and the other behind his back, in one swoop. “AHHH! OTABEK WHAT THE HELL?!” Yurio screeched, clinging to him fearfully.

Otabek grinned. “What? You’re skinny ass is no trouble for me,” he said, shooting a playful grin at Yuuri and Victor as he carried Yurio over to the couch and made him scream again as he dropped him onto it.

“I was kidding, oh my God, never pick me up again!” Yurio complained loudly. “That was terrifying, what if you dropped me, oh my God you’re trying to sabotage my season!” 

Victor chuckled and Yuuri looked over to see him watching them with a small smile. “I think you’re right about the crush,” he whispered, and Yuuri smiled as he looked over at where Otabek was trying to soothe a grump Yurio’s ire. 

“Oh, I know I am,” Yuuri said, though he still didn’t reveal Yurio’s secret to Victor. He stood up and started around the table to pick up discarded utensils and Victor’s bowl, only to squeak when Victor grabbed his waist and tugged him into his lap. “Vicchan,” he complained, but Victor kissed him, silencing him. Yuuri relaxed some and Victor smiled against his lips. “What was that for?” Yuuri mumbled and Victor shrugged, rubbing his hip.

“Thank you for cooking dinner, and for being so good with Yurio and Otabek, and for just being Yuuri,” he said and Yuuri couldn’t help the wiggling in his belly as he kissed Victor’s nose and then stood up.

“Yeah, yeah.” He bit back a blush as he finished cleaning up. “You’re very sappy today,” he commented. “Know how you can really show me you love me?”

Victor perked up, his eyes going wide at the prospect of being _more_ sappy. “Anything for you, my love!” he said excitedly.

Yuuri smirked and held up the bowls. “Do the dishes for me so I can go sit and relax after standing there cooking for so long.” He saw Victor’s face fall, but he knew Victor would never refuse to do anything that would make Yuuri happy. Yuuri knew damn well that he had Victor hook, line, and sinker. He could ask Victor to dye his hair green and he would do it without hesitation if only to make Yuuri happy. 

“Of course,” Victor said, standing up and grabbing his glass to drain the rest of it before bringing it over to join the rest of the dishes. “You leave this to me.” Yuuri gave him one more sweet kiss to the cheek before going to sit and watch Otabek pester Yurio some more. It was very entertaining. 

When Yuuri flopped down on the couch beside Yurio, Yurio huffed and just put his legs in his lap, leaning his upper half across Otabek. “Hey, can I spend the night?” Yurio asked, looking over at Yuuri. “It’s late and I don’t want to walk home alone,” he said, and Yuuri smiled warmly because getting to the point Yuri would admit that to him had taken a long time. Yuuri knew he hated riding in cars with strangers, so he didn’t like it when Victor called him a cab, either. Yuuri had asked why once and Yurio confessed that Yakov had warned him that since he was so small and pretty, he might get the wrong kind of attention from skeezy cab drivers who thought he was a girl, and since then it made him uncomfortable to take cabs alone. 

“Sure you can,” Yuuri said, only to frown suddenly. “Well, Otabek, do you mind?” he asked, and Otabek shrugged.

“Yeah, of course it’s fine.” He poked Yurio in the tummy, making him whine and elbow Otabek in the ribs. “Just don’t puke on me after eating your bodyweight in soup,” he said, and Yurio stuck his tongue out at him in response. 

~

Yuri was going to die. He hadn’t really thought it through when he asked to stay the night, but staying the night meant _sharing a bed with Otabek_. He waited until Victor was busy and Otabek was getting ready for bed, and he asked Yuuri for clothes to wear to sleep and then dragged him into his and Victor’s bedroom.

Yuuri went to his dresser and dug out a tee-shirt and some training pants with a string that would fit Yuri’s smaller hips and Yurio rushed up to him and lowered his voice. “Make an excuse for me to sleep on the couch,” he hissed and Yuuri looked at him funnily.

“What? Why?” he asked, offering the clothes to Yuri. “I’ve slept on that couch when I was mad at Victor before, it’s not comfortable at all,” he stressed.

Yuri spluttered. “I cannot sleep in the same bed as _Otabek_!” he whispered furiously and Yuuri’s eyes widened.

“Oooooh. Oh no. I didn’t even think about that,” he said with a small frown. “Well, you should be fine,” he comforted. “I’m pretty sure awkwardly ending up snuggling only happens in books and stuff,” he added. “Victor and I shared a bed a few times before we got together and it never ended in ‘oh no, your ass is against my crotch’ or anything,” he said, and Yuri cringed at that mental image.

He sighed. “Are you sure?” he asked worriedly. “Because I _cannot_ out myself to him over some stupid crush! It was bad enough he fucking _held me_ cause I was fidgeting and then I fell asleep on him! I’m going to have stupid sappy thoughts about that bullshit for days!” he grumbled. He was really pissed about this stupid crush. It was definitely ruining his life. 

Yuuri put a hand on his shoulder and smiled. “If you’re really that worried, you can always make up an excuse and sleep on the couch no matter how uncomfortable it might be. Just try it first,” he said, and Yuri nodded. “Now, I’m gonna go out there so you can change,” he said, and Yuri thanked him as he left. 

Once he finished changing, he came out only to see Victor helping Otabek make up the couch. He frowned as he walked closer and Otabek looked up and spotted him. “I’ll sleep out here. Give you the full bed,” he explained, and Yuri sighed.

“Otabek, you don’t have to-“

“No, no, it’s alright,” he said. “You’re getting tall so you probably need more space than me. The couch is fine.”

Yuuri shrugged. “I tried to tell him it’s not very comfortable, but he insisted.”

Victor smiled. “It’s no big deal, I’ve slept on it before just fine.”

Yuri hummed doubtfully but shrugged. “Fine, I’m gonna go brush my teeth and shit,” he said, leaving Otabek finishing putting blankets on the couch while Victor, as usual, latched onto Yuuri and tugged him into the chair with him so they could finish watching the TV show they had paused.

Not even twenty minutes passed before the door opened and Yuri looked up from where he was in bed with his phone to see Otabek hovering in the doorway. “Um.” He rubbed at his hair awkwardly. “Can I maybe share with you?” he asked, grimacing. “I’m about ninety percent sure Victor and Yuuri are gonna have sex, cause they’re whispering to each other and touching each other and stuff over there and I cannot handle being on the couch when they decide to ‘go to bed’ and I know for sure what they’re doing in there,” he said, and Yuri snorted in amusement and disgust mixed together. It was a strange combination.

“Come on,” he said, shuffling to one side to empty up the other side of the bed. As much as he had wanted to avoid sharing a bed with Otabek, even he wasn’t cruel enough to make the guy sleep out there with _that_ horrific shit going on, and he wasn’t about to offer to go out there instead. 

Otabek let out a sigh of relief and shut the door, immediately going to the bed. “Oh thank God. My other option was to sleep on the floor in the kitchen as far from their door as possible.” Yuri snickered as Otabek slid into bed beside him. “So far I’ve never heard them doing it or anything, but I’d inevitably hear _something_ if I was already aware what was going on.”

Yuri groaned. “Ew, that’s disgusting to think about.”

Otabek’s reply was silenced by a knock on the door and it swinging open some. Victor leaned in with a shit-eating grin on his face that made Yuri very suspicious. “It would be best if we left this open,” he said with a look that was far too knowing for Yuri’s taste. His cheeks flushed and he glared so hard at Victor he was annoyed Victor didn’t look afraid. Instead, he just winked at Yuri. “It’s just a formality, of course, but Yakov would kill me if I let his _underage_ skater spend the night with a boy behind a closed door.”

Otabek cleared his throat awkwardly and Yuri tried his best to murder Victor with his mind. “Um, as long as we don’t overhear anything we shouldn’t hear,” Otabek said awkwardly and Victor just wiggled his eyebrows.

“Oh don’t worry, I’m very good at following directions to stay quiet and not make a sound-“

“VICTOR NIKIFOROV, YOU BETTER NOT BE SAYING WHAT I THINK YOU’RE SAYING TO THOSE BOYS, OR YOU WILL BE SLEEPING ON THE COUCH INSTEAD!” Yuuri’s voice suddenly rang out from the living room.

Victor winced. “Goodnight!” he said quickly, then ducked out, leaving about a one foot gap in the open doorway.

Yuri made a face and Otabek snorted. “Well,” Otabek said, sliding down in the bed. “Pretty sure we don’t have to worry about hearing them have sex now that Victor pissed Yuuri off,” he said, and Yuri giggled meanly, wiggling down in bed as well, turning to shut off the light.

“If cock-blocking yourself was a sport, Victor would probably be better at it than he is figure skating,” he said, earning a snicker from Otabek as they both settled down to go to sleep. 

~

Yuri woke up to something cold and wet on his neck and the sound of Otabek snickering. He grimaced. “I swear to God, that better be the dog, or else I’ll punch you in the dick, Otabek.”

There was a distinctly canine whine and he opened his eyes to see the giant fucking poodle laid between him and Otabek, its tongue lolling and its cold, wet nose bumping Yuri’s neck as he wagged his tail. “Ew,” Yuri said, squirming away. “I fucking hate dogs,” he said, but immediately raised his hand to pet Makkachin’s furry neck. 

“Yes, I see how much you clearly hate him,” Otabek said in an amused tone, and Yuri poked his tongue out at him as he hugged Makkachin.

“I do,” he said, pressing a kiss to the dog’s floppy ear. “Dogs are gross and slobber and loud,” he said even as he looked into Makka’s big brown eyes and put on a baby voice. “Yes they do, yes they do!” He smiled when Makka leaned into his petting. “You’re big and icky and gross, aren’t you, baby?” He hugged Makkachin and smiled across at Otabek, who was propped on one elbow to look at him. Yuri grinned innocently, laying his head on Makkachin’s neck. “He’s big and soft,” he said with a small shrug. He rubbed the dogs back, giggling when his wagging tail hit his leg. “I think he probably weighs more than Yuuri does,” he joked, rubbing the dog’s soft fur. 

Otabek smiled down at him with a strange smile Yuri didn’t quite understand. “You don’t look the same when you let your guard down, you know,” he said, and Yuri instantly looked away. “Come on, Yura, don’t do that,” he said, reaching out to touch his wrist. “You’ve been very weird lately. I’m not used to you putting up that act around me.”

Yuri swallowed hard, looking down at the hand around his wrist. “I just- I’m in a weird place lately. I’m sorry if it’s annoying you-“

“I’m worried, not annoyed,” he said softly. Yuri glanced up at Otabek, whose brown eyes were narrowed as he searched Yuri’s face. “Is it your training? Yuuri told me your growth spurts have thrown off your jumping-“

“I’m just having a hard time, Beka, I don’t want to talk about it,” he said quickly, looking away from his face. He groaned, pressing his face into Makkachin’s fur. “I fucking hate being a teenager.”

Otabek chuckled. “Trust me, Yura, it doesn’t get much better just getting older. I’ll be nineteen this year and things still confuse me daily.”

Yuri sighed. “Nineteen still has ‘teen’ on it. Life has to get easier after twenty.” He grimaced. “Although, look at Katsudon. We met face to face the first time because he was sobbing in a toilet stall cause he was so lost.” Yuri scrunched his nose. “I’ll murder you if you ever tell anybody, but I feel really bad for that to this day because I found out that his fucking dog died the day before the free skate. No wonder he fell apart. I’d probably kill myself with my skate if I was already under the pressure of the grand prix final and my cat died on top of that.”

Otabek chuckled. “Your secret is safe with me,” he promised. He reached out and petted Makkachin. “This guy is kind of old, isn’t he?” he asked, looking uneasy.

Yuri shook his head. “Not really,” he said, kissing Makkachin’s ear. “He’s the second poodle Victor’s had. When I moved here, Victor had a girl dog that had come with him when he moved in with Yakov, and she got too old for him to take care of with how busy he was, so he sent her home to live out the rest of her days with his parents, and after she died, he was really sad for a while, so Yakov got him a poodle puppy.” He smiled as Makkachin looked at him with his big, sweet brown eyes that kind of reminded him of Katsudon. “Makka’s about five now, so he’s not a puppy anymore, but he’s not old.” He blew a kiss at the dog, earning a big slobbery lick to the face. “Ew, you’re so disgusting,” he said, giving the dog a disapproving look.

“Awww,” Otabek cooked. “He just loves you,” he said, petting the dog between the ears. “Yes he does, huh? Yes he does,” he said in a baby voice that made Yuri laugh at him under his breath. 

Before Yuri could make a crack at him, however, the door swung open and Victor walked in. “Wakey-wakey Yura- oh! That’s where Makkachin ran off to,” he said, and Makkachin jumped up, managing to step on every sensitive spot both Yuri and Otabek had, it seemed, and bounded off the bed to Victor. 

“Owwwww,” Yuri whined, holding his ribs as he glared at the dog that was now standing up with his paws on Victor. “Stupid Makka,” he said and Makkachin looked over with that big, dumb puppy face and wagged his tail. 

Victor petted Makkachin’s ears. “He always runs off when we start to have sex, but I guess today he got bored and came to visit you since the door was open.”

Yuri’s jaw dropped and Otabek made a cringing face. “Why the fuck did you have to tell us that?!” Yuri demanded, and then frowned. “Wait, I thought Yuuri was mad at you anyways.”

Otabek snorted. “I guess we were wrong about the cock-blocking yourself award,” he said and Yuri snickered.

Victor just winked in the creepiest manner. “Even when he is mad at me, Yuuri can’t keep his hands to himself.”

Yuri groaned and grabbed the pillow under his head to fling at Victor, who yelped as it hit him right in the face. Otabek held his hand up for a high-five and Yuri grinned as he gave him one. “VICTOR!” they heard Yuuri call from the kitchen. “STOP PESTERING THEM AND COME EAT!”

Yuri snickered. “Yeah, Victor, listen to your fiancé and go get breakfast and fuck off,” he said and Victor just smirked in a way that made Yuri dread what would be said next.

“But Yuuuuriii, I already ate something this morning, you know that,” he said with a leer over his shoulder as he walked out, Makkachin following him.

Yuri and Otabek both exchanged horrified looks and lay there, scarred for life, too traumatized to move a muscle. The only small mercy came in the form of Yuuri shouting, “VICTOR!” in a scandalized tone.

~

Yuuri was absolutely not talking to Victor. Victor and his dirty words that might have been true but that wasn’t the point. “I cannot believe you are actually marrying that pervert,” Yurio said from where he sat, shoveling eggs in his mouth.

Otabek snorted into his coffee. “Oh come on, it would be funny if it wasn’t disgusting,” he said and Yuuri ignored the both of them as he ate his breakfast with flaming cheeks. 

“I am a _child_ ,” Yurio stressed dramatically. “He said filthy things in front of me! He’s a pervert.”

Victor tutted from where he sat at the end of the bar, shunned from sitting with them at the table. “You’re sixteen years old, I had already had two boyfriends at your age-“

“I am a child!” Yurio repeated loudly. “A child who does not need to even hear such words-“

“You told JJ to go fuck himself with his bronze medal last year-“

Yuuri looked up in shock at that. “Yurio!” he chastised and Yurio grumbled, ducking over his plate. “Although, Victor really shouldn’t say those things,” he agreed, glaring over at Victor, who threw his hands up.

Otabek snickered. “You’re the one doing those things,” he muttered and Yuuri flushed, looking away. 

“Since when are you and Otabek buddy-buddy enough to joke?” Yurio asked, and Yuuri glanced at Otabek, who smiled back. 

“Well, he’s been helping me with my Russian,” Yuuri admitted. “Victor lies and tells me I’m right just because he doesn’t want me to feel bad,” he said, and Yurio mimed gagging. “He tried teaching me some stuff in other languages, but my mouth doesn’t even work that way.”

Otabek rolled his eyes. “You could learn if you really wanted to.” 

“I already know enough languages,” Yuri said with a scrunch of his nose. “Learning English sucked. Thank God for the internet.”

“I love languages,” Victor said from where he was sitting and Yuuri narrowed his eyes at him.

“Nobody asked you, Victor,” he said, and Victor turned to pout at him, making Yuuri feel _slightly_ guilty. It was so hard to stay mad at Victor. Damn that pretty face. He sighed. “I’m sorry, that was harsh,” he said and Yurio booed loudly.

“No, stay mad!” he urged. “He is gross!” Yuuri rolled his eyes.

He poked a fork at Yurio, who glared. “You like Victor, don’t joke.”

Yurio glared over at Victor. “Not when he says gross things around my underage ears.”

After breakfast, and after forgiving Victor even though he didn’t deserve it, Yuuri went to get ready while Victor washed dishes. He had rink time in just over an hour, so he was going to run to the rink. After he got dressed, he went to find Yurio, who was sitting on Otabek’s bed while Otabek was in the shower, and he knocked on the door. “Hey, I’m running to rink, you wanna come?” 

Yurio perked up. “Oh, yeah, sure,” he said, going over to his skate bag. “I’ve got stuff, just let me change really fast,” he said, and Yuuri smiled at how Yurio, who used to pretend everything was a hardship when Yuuri was involved, didn’t hesitate to join him on a run. As much as Yurio reminded him of his sister, it wasn’t hard to think of him like the little brother he never had before. He was a pain in the butt, and he complained all the time, but deep down, he was a fun kid to hang out with, and Yuuri needed someone to hang out with here besides Victor.

When Yuuri headed back to the kitchen to grab his water bottle from the refrigerator, Victor whistled at his shape in his running tights and Yuuri glared. “Enough of that,” he warned. “You’re being such a creep today, and it’s really annoying.”

Victor gave a softer, more genuine smile and he nodded. “I’m sorry. I just have so much fun fucking with Yurio. He gets so angry when I flirt with you,” he said with a soft chuckle. “He’s so funny with his ‘gross old man’ reactions.” He tutted. “Like he doesn’t think about sex stuff. He’s a teenage boy, all I thought about was sex at his age.”

Yuuri rolled his eyes, leaning against the refrigerator to talk to Victor. “Yeah, but at his age he probably thinks about it abstractly, the actual reality probably still seems gross to him. And he looks at us like older brothers, of course he thinks that’s gross,” he stressed. “Do you know how disgusting it was when my sister would sneak out and I saw the boy picking her up?” he demanded. “I knew damn well what they were going to do and it was the grossest thing ever!”

Victor made a face. “I mean no disrespect, but I cannot imagine your sister having sex. She looks like she’d rather murder someone than sleep with them.”

“Good,” Yuuri said firmly, shuddering at the thought. “She’s a grown woman and I still like to pretend she’s asexual and doesn’t even look at men that way. In my mind, Mari doesn’t even know what a penis looks like.”

“Well you don’t have to have sex for that,” Victor said unhelpfully. “The internet is full of penises,” he said, and Yuuri snickered at how seriously he said it. “It’s true! I made a horrible mistake with my English one time, when I was a teenager and still not great with it, and was looking for a hairstyle where your hair is all fluffy and I thought the right phrase was ‘blow job’, not ‘blow out’,” he said, voice trailing off as he shook his head.

Yuuri snickered. “Oh Vicchan, no,” he giggled and Victor nodded with wide eyes. 

“I had never actually _seen_ that before, only heard about it and imagined it, and let’s just say, it was a very jarring experience. Especially sitting in Yakov’s living room at his computer desk,” he said and Yuuri almost doubled over laughing, imagining teenage Victor traumatized by a screen full of blowjob photos while Yakov was in the room. Victor shook his head. “I’m pretty sure I was both emotionally scarred and insanely aroused for a full week after that. Every time I closed my eyes I got mental flashes, but it was really sexy, so I was traumatized by how horny it made me.” He sighed dramatically. “Thank God those teenage years are long behind me.”

Yuuri grinned. “Yeah, well, now you have some idea how I felt coming home to you naked in the bath, just standing there, fully exposed, holding a hand out towards me with no warning.”

“Yes, well, my intention was to seduce you,” Victor said plainly, giving him a smile. “Instead you were afraid to come near me-“

“I was afraid I’d do something stupid like blurt out that I’d had that exact fantasy basically weekly throughout puberty,” Yuuri said with a laugh. “If only little Yuuri had known how much of an annoying bunch of trouble Victor Nikiforov would be in a relationship.”

Victor pouted and batted his eyelashes playfully. “But I’m worth it, right?”

Yuuri shrugged, scrunching up his nose. “Eh, I’ll tell you when we’ve been married for twenty years,” he said with a noncommittal shrug that made Victor give him a sweet look. For all his silly, immature moments, Yuuri loved that Victor knew when to be an adult and grow more serious. That look in his eyes wasn’t his flirtatious teasing one that came out when he made sex jokes, it was his ‘real, grownup relationship’ look, one that was no less loving but far more comforting to Yuuri in his moments of self-doubt. Victor may be one that had his flights of over the top dramatic romanticism, but he also had a very adult part of him that had truly measured all of the issues around their relationship and still found that being married was the right thing to do for both of them. 

Victor cleared his throat, breaking off their staring at one another as he looked back to the sink. “I’ll be at the rink in two hours, so you-“

Victor was cut off by a loud scream from the other bedroom that made Yuuri turn and head out so he could see into the other room, only to go wide-eyed as he stepped in front of the doorway just in time to see a naked Otabek – with nothing but a towel on – curse and stumble backwards into the bathroom while a mostly-naked Yurio stood on the other side of the room clutching his pants over himself with a horrified look. “KATSUDON STOP LOOKING!” he spluttered and Yuuri quickly turned around, putting his back to Yurio just as the bathroom door slammed shut. 

“What on earth happened?” Victor asked as he walked into view only to have Yuuri immediately reach up and cover his eyes.

Yurio was knocking things over and it sounded like he was jumping around as he spat out an explanation. “I was CHANGING to go running and Otabek decided to just fucking walk out of the bathroom after the WORLDS SHORTEST SHOWER-“

“Not everybody has two feet of hair to wash!” Otabek shouted from the bathroom, voice muffled by the shut door.

“And I was _naked_!” Yurio cried. “And OTABEK IS NAKED, WHY DID YOU COME OUT OF THE BATHROOM NAKED?!” he shouted angrily. 

“I didn’t think you were still in here, cause I heard you say you were going running!” Otabek called.

Yurio made a whimper sound and clearly kicked something. “I’m wearing pants now, you fuckers,” he grumbled and Yuuri lowered his hand from Victor’s eyes and turned around to see a bright red Yurio struggling to put on a shirt because he was so upset. 

“Come here,” Yuuri said gently, walking over to him. He grabbed the sleeve that was tangled around Yurio’s wrist and helped him get it over his hand, allowing him to put his shirt on finally. Yuuri could understand why Yurio was so embarrassed. He wasn’t a stranger to changing around people, but most people weren’t the boy he had a crush on, and as Yuuri could see when he didn’t have his pants on yet, Yurio was clearly suffering the worst parts of insanely fast growth spurts, mainly being awkward gangly limbs and the crushing self-doubt that came with it. Yuuri was by no means a giant, but he, too, had looked pretty weird and gangly as a teenager, because it was when he was training too hard to get fat, but didn’t have the ‘adult’ musculature to hide his awkwardly long arms and legs. 

“Let’s just go,” Yurio muttered as he grabbed his shoes and his skate bag and shoved past Yuuri and headed out of the room, pushing Victor out of his way as he passed him. 

~

Yuri wanted to die.

“I want to fucking DIE!” he cried as he ran alongside Yuuri.

Yuuri chuckled. “It’s not that bad-“

“OTABEK SAW ME NAKED!” he screeched, horrified at his life. “Naked, Yuuri, NAKED!”

“Oh, you called me Yuuri, that’s unusual-“

“I’m just gonna-“ He veered to the railing of the bridge and grabbed it, only to have Yuuri grab his shirt and yank him away before he could jump off the bridge.

Yuuri glared at him, tugging him into a run. “It’s not that bad. I know it wasn’t good, but you like him, it isn’t like you don’t want him to eventually see you naked,” he said bluntly and Yuri groaned dramatically.

“First, I would rather this stupid crush burn in hell,” he stressed, “and second, NOT AT SIXTEEN!” Yuri whimpered dramatically. “I’m so weird looking!” he complained. He whined. “You saw me! I’ve got _stretch marks_.” Yuri grumbled. “And you didn’t even see the worst ones, my back is FUCKED! I’m getting too tall too fast and my fucking back has fucking stretch marks, how fucking stupid is that?! They’re way worse than the ones on my fucking chest and arms!” He groaned. “Why, muscles?! Why?!” 

Yuuri laughed at him. “Hey, at least yours are from growth spurts and muscle growth. Mine are from being fat any time I took a break from training hard.”

Yuri raised an eyebrow. “Look, I know I call you a pig all the time, but you’re skinnier than me, and you were barely fat when you did that video of you skating Victor’s routine!”

“So? It still does the job when you’re a teenager, just like you.” He did a skip, tapping his thigh. “My thighs are the worst, but my ass and hips have them, too. And like you, where my chest and arms meet, from growing more masculine muscles.”

“What about Victor?” Yuri asked. 

Yuuri groaned. “No, of course he doesn’t have stretch marks, even as tall as he is,” he complained. “Of course, Victor Nikiforov has to be absolutely perfect in every way.” He grinned a bit more viciously than Yuri was used to. “His hair’s thinning, though.”

“No shit?” Yuri asked, barely missing a pole because he was busy watching Yuuri smirk and nod. “Ha!” Yuri shook his head. “Why are you so happy about your stupid fiancé going bald?”

“That way I won’t be the ugly one when we’re old,” he said and Yuri snickered at Yuuri’s pettiness. “He’s all beautiful and perfect, and he’ll still be beautiful and perfect when we get married, so our wedding photos will look lovely for our grandchildren when we’re old and I’m fat and he’s bald,” he said with a smirk.

Yuri liked this side of Yuuri. “You’re fun when you’re a dick,” he said, and Yuuri blushed and looked away as they continued on their run. “One good thing that I get from this, though,” Yuri said, not really surprised by the revelation but still amused. “At least I know for sure you love him for who he is, not just because he’s famous and handsome.”

Yuuri chuckled. “Listen, I had a crush on my sports idol as a child, and even some as an adult, but all that died within weeks of having him as my coach. The man I love is far from perfect and at this point, I’m probably always going to think he’s the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen, but you’ll learn one day, Yurio, that you have a crush on someone’s perfections, but you fall in love with their flaws.”

“Oh stop acting all knowledgeable,” Yuri said, though without any heat as he was smiling at Yuuri. “You’d never had a boyfriend before Victor, you don’t know shit about relationships.”

Yuuri ducked his head bashfully. “Shut up, Yurio,” he said, and then yelped and took off running faster as Yuri tried to shove him over for calling him that. 

Yuuri was faster than Yuri would’ve thought and he had to really leg it as he tried to catch up with his laughing ass as he sprinted away towards the steps of the rink not too far ahead. 

~

Yurio didn’t come to the house for several days after the nudity incident, as Victor called it, and Yuuri could tell that Otabek didn’t understand why, but knew it was his fault. Yurio still texted and called him, Yuuri knew, but he wasn’t visiting, and Otabek seemed to be sad. 

“You know,” Yuuri said when they were walking back from the coffee shop together, “Yurio isn’t angry at you.”

Otabek grunted, looking down at his coffee. “I’m not sure I believe you.” He sighed. “He keeps avoiding me. I don’t know why he’s still talking to me if he’s going to avoid me.”

Yuuri chuckled. “You saw him naked, Otabek, of course he’s too embarrassed to be around you.”

“He saw me naked, too!” Otabek defended, cheeks going pink. 

“Even better reason to avoid you,” Yuuri said. “He probably thinks you’re just as embarrassed by all of it as he is.”

Otabek rolled his eyes. “He’s my best friend, it was embarrassing, but it’s over with now.”

Yuuri gave him a smile, trying not to look patronizing. “He’s sixteen. Surely you remember how awkward and embarrassing your body was at sixteen. He’s gangly and awkwardly shaped and insecure about himself, and then _you_ saw him naked.”

Otabek lowered his gaze. “I was kind of fat at sixteen,” he admitted, and Yuuri chuckled at the thought. “I can see how he might be a little embarrassed.” He rubbed a hand through his hair. “I just wish he’d hang out again. I’m leaving soon enough, and I’ll miss him enough then, no reason to miss him _now_.”

“He’ll come around,” Yuuri comforted. “He’s just embarrassed. I remember being sixteen. It was a hard age.”

“I was sixteen very recently, so I’m well aware.”

Yuuri patted Otabek on the shoulder. “It will be okay. Just give him time.”

Otabek nodded glumly. “I don’t have a lot of time, though, that’s the problem.”

~

After Yuuri told him that Otabek felt shitty about him not visiting, Yuri decided to go see him. It wasn’t like it was his fault, or anything, he just was so embarrassed at the thought that Otabek had _seen him naked_. However, Otabek had been right when he told Yuuri that he didn’t have long left in Russia. He and his coach would be leaving in just two weeks.

Yuuri and Victor had given him a key to their place ages ago, but he only used it when he knew they weren’t home, because he _did not_ want to walk in on them fucking. He knocked when one of them was home, but today, they were both at the rink. After letting himself in, he stopped to pet Makkachin. “Awww, hey there, boy,” he said, then looked up. “Beka? Are you here?”

“Yura?” Yuri headed towards Otabek’s room. The door opened and Otabek smiled – really smiled – and pulled him into a hug. “Hey,” he said, and Yuri relaxed into his hug, smiling as he hugged him back.

“Hey, Beka.” He gave him a bashful look. “I’m sorry, about all…” He waved his hand. “All of that.”

Otabek ducked his head. “It’s all forgotten,” he said, and Yuri smiled and nodded. 

“Who’s your friend, Otabek?” Yuri startled and looked over at the bed, only to see Otabek had been video chatting with someone.

Otabek turned around and walked back over to the bed, tugging Yuri with him. “Zarina, this is Yuri-“

“I know who Yuri is, Otabek,” the girl said, and Yuri looked at her curiously. She wasn’t Otabek’s sister, he could tell. She was too old to be the little girl he had seen in photos. She was also really pretty. Her hair was a lighter brown than Otabek’s, hanging in fluffy waves around her face and shoulders, and her eyes were a really pretty pale brown color. Yuri was unable to look away when she smiled, she was so pretty. “Hi, Yuri! Otabek talks about you all the time, it’s so cute.”

Yuri waved awkwardly. “Hi. Zarina, was it?” he asked, and she nodded. 

Otabek leaned closer to the screen. “I should go since Yuri is here-“

“Oh, of course,” Zarina said, blowing a kiss at the screen. Yuri’s insides tightened at that gesture, but a moment later, what she said absolutely stopped his heart in his chest. “I miss you, and I love you.” Yuri fought so hard to not make a sound at all, because on the inside, he was panicking. “I’ll send you some photos tonight. I’ve got a new ‘outfit’,” she said with a wiggle of her eyebrows, and Otabek laughed low in his throat.

And it then he shattered Yuri’s heart into pieces.

“Love you, too, Sunshine. I’ll look forward to that.”

Yuri sucked in a breath quickly. “Actually, there’s no need to go, I was only stopping by to apologize for not coming around so much,” he said quickly. He fixed on a smile as he looked at Otabek, who frowned at him. “I’ve got to get home, Yakov needs me, I only had time to stop by quickly.”

Otabek looked hurt. “You’re leaving already?”

Yuri nodded quickly. “Yes, sorry, I just wanted to stop by and talk in person, instead of apologize over the phone.”

Over the speakers of the laptop, Zarina let out an ‘awww’. “You’re a really good friend to my Beka,” she said, and Yuri turned a panicked smile her way.

“You can have him back, I’m just gonna leave, bye, nice to meet you, later, Otabek!” he said, waving to them both as he grabbed his bag off the floor and practically fled the room. Once he was out the door of Otabek’s room, he dropped the ruse and _ran_ to the door. 

When he got out to the hall, he didn’t even bother going to the elevator, because it would take too long, and he wanted to be as far away from here as possible as the words _my Beka_ echoed through his mind and tears burned his eyes as soon as he got into the stairwell.

~

Yuuri was almost home when Yakov called him and asked him to come over, and Yuuri couldn’t very well say no to Yakov. 

Even if he wasn’t slightly afraid of him, he wanted Yakov to like him too much to say no.

When he arrived, however, Yakov led him through to the hallway and hesitated. “It’s Yuratchka,” he said softly. “He’s been crying since he got home, and I know he won’t want his coach to try and talk to him about his feelings.”

Yuuri wanted to ask why Yakov thought Yuri would want to talk to _him_ , but he went to the door with a tiger poster on the outside of it and knocked gently. He heard a sniffle and a very weak, ‘I’m not hungry, Yakov!’, which was what prompted him to actually open the door. Yurio never sounded so meek. 

“Yurio?” he asked softly as he stepped inside the room, looking at the boy laid face down on his bed, only to startle when Yuri’s head snapped up and he _yelped_.

“NO YOU CAN’T COME IN HERE!” he cried, nearly falling off his bed in his haste to flail a hand at Yuuri, but Yuuri didn’t bother being confused, because as soon as Yuri moved, Yuuri finally looked around the room and realized exactly why Yuri wouldn’t want him in his room.

While it wasn’t the only face looking back from the walls covered in posters, the biggest face looking back at him, from a giant poster that filled the space above the small desk in the corner, was his own. Yurio had a big Katsuki Yuuri poster on his wall, from several years ago, and it was hung prominently so that the first thing one saw when entering the room would be it.

Yuuri flushed slightly and realized there were a few smaller posters of him mixed in with some of other famous figure skaters and a few posters of bands and musicians. “Were you a _fan_?” he asked him, unable to hold it in. “Wow, I would have never suspected that.”

Yurio groaned dramatically and fell backwards off his bed, sliding until his shoulders and head rested on the floor and the rest of his long body lay across the width of the narrow bed. “This is officially the worst day of my life. I’m going to kill myself. It’s the only answer,” he proclaimed, letting his arms hang over his face.

Yuuri tutted and walked over. “Yuri, you don’t have to be embarrassed-“

“I don’t even like that you know I don’t hate you, now you know I’ve _always been a fan_!” he whined. “It’s horrible! It’s worse than Christophe Giacometti finding out I have a poster of him!” he said, and Yuuri noticed there was a lone picture of Chris there as well. 

Yuuri sighed, and grabbed Yurio’s hand, tugging him up so he sat on the bed again. “Well, at least you’re so embarrassed you stopped crying,” he said, sitting down beside him, only to have Yuri let out a whine and fall over against the pillows again, narrowly missing his cat, and start sniffling pitifully again. “Oh Yuri,” he sighed, reaching out to rub his back. “What on earth happened?”

Yuri whimpered. “It’s stupid,” he said, looking at his cat and not at Yuuri, though he made no move to cover his face again. He reached out and petted the cat, who sat there and just enjoyed it.

Yuuri rubbed his back in slow, soothing strokes. “What happened?” he asked against, and Yuri sniffled.

“O-Otabek has a girlfriend,” he whispered, and Yuuri immediately understood.

“Oh, Yuri,” he said, and Yuri whimpered and started to cry, his shoulders shaking. Yuuri understood entirely. Though it hadn’t happened to him, the thought of having gotten so close to Victor only to find out he had a girlfriend waiting for him would have _destroyed_ Yuuri. Otabek was Yurio’s first crush, and his best friend, and Yurio could say all he wanted about hating that stupid crush, but Yuuri knew that deep down, he wanted Otabek to feel the same way. “You didn’t know already?”

“No!” he all but wailed, shoulders shaking. “He’s never talked about a girlfriend! But- but I went to your place to talk to him about being weird lately, and she was video chatting with him, and- and I didn’t even think about her being his girlfriend at first.”

Yuuri nodded. “And what happened to change that?”

Yurio sniffled. “Blew him a kiss and said ‘I love you’ and said something about a ‘new outfit’ she wanted to show him, like- like sexy stuff, and said how much she missed him.” He whimpered some, and Yuuri saw his lip tremble. “She called him ‘my Beka’,” he muttered. “I thought I was the only one who called him ‘Beka’.”

It hurt to see how heartbroken poor Yurio was. “Are you sure-“

“Yes!” he gritted out, sitting up. “Cause he said it back! He said ‘I love you’ back to her!” Yuri clenched his jaw, shaking some. “He said ‘I love you’ and he called her ‘sunshine’ and- and she’s so pretty, no wonder he loves her! She’s beautiful! She had fluffy brown hair and pretty light-brown eyes and- and she looked like the most beautiful girl in Kazakhstan! No wonder she’s his girlfriend, she’s so pretty even _Victor’s_ gay ass would love her!” Yuri bowed forward, his head falling. “I was so stupid to think for a minute he would like me!”

Yuuri pulled him into a hug, closing his eyes as Yurio broke down crying again, clinging to him as he cried into his shoulder. “Shhhhh, it’s okay,” he soothed, running his fingers through Yurio’s tangled hair, gently stroking his back along the way as he untangled his long hair. “It’s alright, Yuri,” he comforted, knowing better than to call him ‘Yurio’ when he was upset. He and Victor liked to tease him with that nickname, but Yuuri couldn’t bear to say it when he was crying over his very first broken heart.

“I told you this stupid crush was fucking terrible,” Yurio muttered weakly, voice breaking as he did so, and Yuuri smiled sadly.

“It’ll be okay. I know it doesn’t feel like it right now, but I promise,” Yuuri whispered. “It will be.” Yuuri didn’t mind holding Yurio until he cried himself out, because he knew how it felt to have what you thought was happening be proven to be something else entirely, and it was absolutely crushing. He didn’t want poor Yurio to go through it all alone.

~

Later that night, Yuuri couldn’t stop thinking about poor Yurio the whole time he got ready for bed. He had to pretend he didn’t know what Yuri had been in such a hurry to do with Yakov when Otabek asked why he left so fast after Victor mentioned Yakov had called Yuuri to come over. He had lied about the reason of his visit to Yakov’s house, too. He didn’t want to mention anything in front of Otabek, so he just made up a story about some new music Yakov had composed that he wanted to know Yuuri’s opinion of. 

“Yuuri,” Victor said, pulling him out of his deep thoughts. Yuuri hummed and looked over at where Victor sat in bed, giving Makkachin goodnight cuddles before they went to sleep. “You’ve changed your shirt six times,” he said, and Yuuri looked down to see he’d put on a shirt out of the dresser and then taken it off and dropped the clean shirt in the hamper over and over again while deep in thought. 

Yuuri tutted at his own behavior and fished the clean shirts out of the hamper to put back in the dresser. “My body moves on autopilot when I don’t watch it,” he joked and Victor laughed softly, that warm, loving laugh that said he thought Yuuri was being adorable. “Sorry, Vicchan,” he apologized and Victor hummed.

“What’s got you so distracted, my love?” Victor asked as Yuuri came to bed. 

Makkachin moved his head from Victor’s lap to his once he was settled and Yuuri smiled at how spoiled Makka was. He rubbed Makkachin’s ears and the dog rolled fully onto his back, paws in the air while he soaked up the attention Victor and Yuuri were showing him. “We spoil him more than we spoil each other,” Yuuri mused, making Victor chuckle. 

“I can never say no to either of you,” Victor agreed, leaning his head against Yuuri’s shoulder. “Now, tell me what’s bothering you, my Yuuri,” he asked again, and Yuuri thought back to Yurio’s ‘my Beka’ moment. 

“It’s Yurio,” Yuuri admitted, and Victor perked up.

“I knew something was up with the whole ‘Yakov’ thing,” he said triumphantly. “What did Yurio do?”

Yuuri shook his head, still looking down at Makkachin. “He didn’t do anything wrong. He was just really upset and crying and Yakov thought he might talk to me more than he would Yakov, so I went to his room to talk to him-“ He stopped abruptly, looking at Victor. “By the way, did you have any idea Yurio was a _fan_ of me?” he asked incredulously. “He has _posters_ on his walls that are from years ago,” he said, and Victor smirked.

“I was right, then,” he said decisively. “I have suspected for a while that he beat you at the grand prix final just to make sure you didn’t retire,” he said, and Yuuri could absolutely believe that, knowing what he did now. 

Yuuri shook his head. “Well,” he said, continuing on. “Yurio had a very rough afternoon,” he said sadly, looking at Victor. “He came to visit Otabek and apologize for being too embarrassed to come hang out, and he found out Otabek has a girlfriend.”

“Oh no,” Victor sighed, his face falling. “He has a crush on him, and things got so tense with them being embarrassed, and then ‘bam’, right in the face?” he asked, and Yuuri nodded sadly. 

“He said Otabek was video chatting with a girl so beautiful, and this is his words, not mine, ‘Even Victor’s gay ass would love her’,” he said, and Victor snickered. “She told him she loved him and missed him and wanted to show him some new outfit, and he called her ‘sunshine’ and said he loved her, too. Yurio, as you can imagine, is devastated.”

“I’m sure,” Victor said with a sad nod. “The poor thing,” he moaned. “That first broken heart is usually the worst,” he sighed. “Not always, as I’m living proof of, but often, that first broken heart is the one that just crushes a kid his age.”

Yuuri hummed. “I never really had that sort of heartbreak, but I’ve had my world crumble before, so it has to be similar.” He leaned his head back, looking at Victor. “And what do you mean you’re living proof of it? Something broke your heart worse?” he asked, and Victor gave him a disbelieving look.

“Of course it did! You telling me we should go our separate ways after the final!” he said incredulously. “I know damn well you planned to retire and go back to Japan and for me to go back here and train again. You weren’t going to still move to Russia and marry me if you retired,” he accused, and Yuuri blushed some, because it was true. He had meant for them to go their separate ways that day. 

“I guess I never really thought it through enough to be heartbroken over that,” Yuuri admitted. “If I had done it, it would’ve definitely broken my heart, but I think I was so focused on you skating and being happy that I didn’t really think about the fact we would’ve been breaking up.”

Victor grumbled, looking down at Makkachin. “Yuuri is stupid sometimes, isn’t he, Makkachin?” he asked, leaning down to kiss his doggy face. “He usually is smarter than me, I admit, but sometimes he’s not bright at all.”

Yuuri leaned down to kiss Makka as well, smiling when he knew that was his sign to crawl to the foot of the bed and curl up for them all to go to sleep. Yuuri took his glasses off and put them on the bedside table, but turned back to Victor, who was waiting, and leaned in to kiss him, curling his hand around Victor’s cheek “I’m so sorry I hurt you that way, especially without even knowing what I had done.”

Victor hummed softly and nuzzled his cheek. “I forgave you long ago, my love. I know you never meant to do that. You are far too sweet and loving to mean to hurt me.” He kissed his face and then rolled over, tugging Yuuri’s arm around him. “Poor Yurio.”

Yuuri hummed, kissing Victor’s shoulder. “Poor Yurio,” he agreed as he tightened his hold on Victor’s middle as he rested his cheek against Victor’s shoulder, snuggling close. “Ya lyublyu tebya,” Yuuri murmured, and Victor laced their fingers together on his belly.

“Daisuki da yo,” he whispered back, the same way they did every single night when they went to bed. However, for some reason, after talking about Yurio’s poor broken heart, it felt so much more precious this night.

~

It wasn’t uncommon for Otabek to be home while Yuuri was there and Victor was out, but it was pretty uncommon for Otabek to come to Yuuri and Victor’s room and knock on the open door while Yuuri was putting away clean laundry. He usually did his own thing, rather than seek Yuuri out. “What’s wrong, Otabek?” Yuuri asked, and Otabek looked uncomfortable. 

“I was hoping you could help me figure out what to do about Yuri,” he said, fidgeting with his sleeves. “He’s really weird lately. It seems kind of sad,” he added. “I want to do something to make him happier. I thought maybe we could do something.”

Yuuri was surprised. “What do you mean?”

Otabek shrugged. “I don’t know. I just hate seeing him like this.” He sighed, rubbing at his forehead. “I don’t know if it’s skating or something personal, but he’s so distant and quiet. It’s not like him.” He looked up with sad eyes. “I want to try to make him happy.”

It struck Yuuri that, even if he didn’t like him the same way, Otabek clearly cared a lot for Yurio. “You know, you can’t just fix some things,” he said gently. “Some things are on the inside, and nothing from the outside can help.”

“I know,” Otabek said. “But I can at least distract him, right? He can focus on happy things even for just a little while.”

Yuuri didn’t have the heart to tell him that it wasn’t always that way, and he knew that firsthand. Or tell him that even if Yurio wasn’t actually suffering from depression, but a broken heart because of Otabek himself. He smiled and nodded. “You could always try to distract him. Perhaps that’s just what he needs.”

Otabek looked pleased with himself and he nodded. “Cool.”

~

“Hey.” Yuri looked up as Otabek skated up to the barrier in front of him and panicked silently for a moment. Otabek leaned on the barrier, tilting his head. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he said quickly. He swallowed. “Sorry, you just startled me.”

Otabek smiled. “Sorry,” he said, leaning closer. “Are you free later? I wanted to go shopping and Yuuri’s busy. I’d rather go with you, anyways,” he added with such a sweet look that it made Yuri want to roll his eyes. No wonder he thought Otabek liked him with him looking at him _that_ way. Otabek was just too sweet for his own damn good.

It wasn’t his fault, though.

“Sure,” Yuri said with a nod. “What kind of shopping are we doing? You already bought clothes,” he said and Otabek shook his head.

“I want to buy gifts for my family and maybe something for my rink mates who all got shunted around to other places just like me,” he said with a big smile. “Some of them are heading back this week, so I can go ahead and send their gifts in the mail.”

Yuri could handle that. Souvenir shopping for Otabek’s friends and family was something he could do. It would be a good way to practice putting Otabek back into the ‘just a best friend’ box. “Yeah, that sounds fun,” he said, and Otabek smiled at him, making him realize how much he had missed Otabek’s smile. 

“Cool,” he said brightly. “I’ve rented a bike, so I’ll see you after practice,” he said, and Yuri’s blood drained from his face as Otabek skated away.

Otabek had rented a bike. They were going to be riding around the city. With his arms around Otabek. Oh God. 

~

If there was a hell, Yuri was going there for sure.

He spent the whole time riding around the streets of St. Petersburg on the back of Otabek’s rented bike sneaking feels of Otabek’s abs under the guise of ‘hanging on tight’. He was a pervert, and he knew it. It was so wrong, and he was molesting his friend, and it was so bad.

But _God_ they felt nice. 

Otabek’s stomach was like steel. It was like someone had molded his body out of marble. His forearms flexed every time he turned the bike, and his stomach was rock solid, and when Yuri leaned against his back, he could feel the muscles of his back working with the movements of his arms, and it was just so amazing. It felt very wrong, but it wasn’t his fault. Yuri couldn’t help but admire how athletic Otabek was. 

Yeah, he was admiring his friend’s athleticism. That was all. 

When they finally stopped Yuri was distracted from his shame by Otabek grabbing his hand to pull him into a shop that sole solely matryoshkas. “Aw come on, the most stereotypical thing besides a bottle of vodka?” Yuri asked Otabek, and he just rolled his eyes, shoving his sunglasses up off his face.

“My sister has always loved matryoshkas. I’ll find something for her here,” he said, tugging Yuri along. 

Walking through the displays of dolls, Yuri had to admit, some of them were really cool. There were traditional ones, yes, but there were also cool themed ones. There was one with famous people that had a suspiciously Victor-looking doll in there. There was one with American presidents that was hilarious. One had skeletons, which he thought was the coolest of them all, though Otabek said his sister probably wouldn’t like skeletons. 

“Oooh, this one is cool,” Yuri called as he held up one that was an orange cat and had different colored cats for each smaller matryoshka. 

Otabek smiled, shaking his head. “Aigerim likes dogs.” Yuri made a face and mimed gagging.

“Ew. Your sister is disowned. I lied every time I said I liked her.” He continued on, looking at the glass display stands, occasionally laughing at some silly-themed dolls. One with clowns freaked him out a bit, so he moved past that one quickly. 

Yuri spotted a beautiful set of _glass_ dolls, and reached for it, only to have his hand swatted sharply by a paper fan, making him yelp and jump back, looking at the woman who had stood up behind the counter that he hadn’t seen before. “Can’t you read?” she asked, pointing at the sign Yuri had missed that said not to touch it. “Or do you not read Russian or English?” she asked, swapping to English hopefully.

He narrowed his eyes. “Of course I speak and read Russian.” He flushed. “And English,” he added in English. 

“Yura?” Otabek walked over, nodding politely. “Is everything alright?” he asked, and the woman grunted.

“Your friend just can’t read,” she said, leaning on the counter to look at the two of them. “Can I help you find something?” she asked.

Otabek nodded. “I’m looking for something for my sister. She’s thirteen,” he said, looking around. “Something pretty and pink, maybe,” he added.

The woman perked up. “Pretty, you say?” She nodded down the counter and started walking, and they followed. She stopped and pointed to the front row display. “Not pink, but something every thirteen year old girl I’ve ever known would like.”

Yuri looked in wonder at the beautiful black matryoshka with a white and purple ballerina on it. Otabek opened it and pulled out the next doll, and it was the same ballerina, but in a different position. Yuri smiled at the detail on the frilly tutu and the delicate arms and legs. “Oh wow, Aigerim will love that,” he said, and Otabek smirked suddenly. “What?” Yuri asked suspiciously and Otabek held the doll up, turning to hold it beside Yuri. Yuri raised an eyebrow and Otabek looked between the ballerina and Yuri a few times and Yuri’s face fell flat when he realized what he was doing. “Shut the fuck up,” he warned, and Otabek chuckled but said nothing else.

“Huh, you do look like her,” the shopkeeper said, earning a scathing look. “You’re kinda tall for a ballerina, though,” she said, and Yuri rolled his eyes.

“And there’s the part where I’m a man,” he added and she shrugged.

“Eh, you could pad your bra,” she said, and he spluttered as she walked back to the register to wait for Otabek to bring the dolls up and pay for them.

After they left, Yuri barely holding off on swearing at the dumb bitch at the shop, they continued down the street to look at the other shops. They bought cheesy tee-shirts for Otabek’s father, and a pretty shawl for his mother, and various trinkets for people he wanted to send gifts along the same street. After only an hour or two they had bought all Otabek wanted to buy and instead, they had started just looking for the weirdest things they could find in the little mostly-for-tourists shops and try to convince the other to buy it. 

They were walking in the hot afternoon sun with their training jackets stripped off and tied around their waists, so that they were both wearing shirts that bared their shoulders against the heat. Yuri had pulled his hair up into a messy bun, and Otabek had tied his bangs up into a knot on top of his head, which Yuri constantly teased him about. It was hot but neither of them wanted to stop walking around looking at weird things yet. 

Yuri had missed this. He loved how easy it was to hang out with Otabek. They could fuck around all day and he wouldn’t get bored of it. It still sucked he had stupid feelings for Otabek and liked his stupid muscles, but it was nice to know he could still hang out with him and have fun. He kind of regretted avoiding him for so long, because Otabek would be leaving soon. He had missed out on time he could’ve spent with him. He had never gotten along so well with anybody before, and it was so fun to have a friend that was (basically) his own age. 

“Oh hey.” Otabek stopped outside of a tattoo shop, and grinned at Yuri. Yuri raised an eyebrow.

“First off, _no_ ,” he stressed. “Second, I’m not old enough anyways,” he reminded him.

Otabek shook his head. “No, we should get our ears pierced!” he said excitedly. He grabbed Yuri’s hands, tugging him towards the door as he walked backwards. “Come on, you can get one and I can get the opposite one. That way we match.”

Yuri rolled his eyes at the idea. “Beka, that’s stupid-“

“No, it’s cool!” He smirked. “How badass would you look with an earring? Come on, Ice Tiger,” he said and Yuri whined the whole time Otabek dragged him into the tattoo parlor.

“Beka-“

“Uh-uh,” Otabek said, holding onto Yuri’s hand firmly as he turned around and marched them both up to the counter, tugging Yuri behind him. “Hi, we want our ears pierced,” he said to the man, and Yuri huffed.

“The fuck I do,” he said, looking at the man also. “He wants his ears pierced-“

“Yura-“

“Beka, I cannot get my ears pierced-“

“Why not? It’ll be cool!” he said, and Yuri groaned, flopping his forehead down against Otabek’s shoulder. Otabek took this as consent and turned back to the man. “Both of us, please.”

Yuri just heaved a sigh and ignored the rest of their conversation until the man led them to a rack with options for earrings. “So where do you want pierced? Both ears? One ear?” the guy asked, spinning the rack. He looked at Yuri. “If you want anything other than your ear done, I probably need to see some ID-“

“Holy shit, no, I am not piercing anything you’d need my ID for, what the fuck?” he spluttered, looking at the earrings. 

Otabek raised an eyebrow at the man. “What sort of things do you need an ID for?”

The guy smirked. “Anything not on your head, pretty much.”

Yuri nearly dry-heaved at the thought of something _not on his head_ getting pierced. “I’m only getting one ear,” he said firmly, looking at Otabek and then the man. “You’re sticking me with one needle and that’s it.”

“You don’t like needles?” Otabek asked, looking a little guilty. “I just assumed, as tough as you are, you wouldn’t mind pain.”

“It’s a fucking needle,” Yuri said firmly. He looked back at the rack and pointed at a pretty, dark purple stone stud. “I like that one.”

Otabek looked at the purple and hummed. “I do, too,” he said, glancing at Yuri. Yuri raised an eyebrow, waiting, and Otabek squeezed the hand he was still holding. “Why don’t you get one on one side and I’ll get it on the other. Same earrings and all. That way we totally match.”

Thinking about it, it was kind of nice. Yuri liked the thought of something to always remind him of Otabek when Otabek was gone again. Every time he put his hair up, he would be reminded of Otabek. Yuri smiled reluctantly and nodded. “Okay,” he said, and Otabek turned to the guy and nodded.

“Awesome,” he said, nodding to a chair beside a table. “Go sit over there, and I’ll get everything,” he said, and Otabek and Yuri went over. Otabek sat in the chair and Yuri, still kind of bitter at Otabek for getting this idea, sat right on top of him, making him grunt and grab Yuri around the waist.

“Shit, you’re heavier than I remember,” he said, and Yuri poked his tongue out at him over his shoulder.

“Yeah, well, that happens when you grow six inches.” It was easy to ignore the hands on his waist when he was about to get stabbed in the head with a needle.

~

Yuri had to admit, their matching earrings were kind of kick ass. He stopped Otabek and wrapped his arms around his shoulders to take a selfie with them each turning their heads inwards until their cheeks touched so the camera could see their new matching earrings. 

Yuri grinned as he typed. “Hashtag ‘badass’,” he said and Otabek rolled his eyes at him.

Otabek pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of them before Yuri could even stop smiling and smirked as he posted it. “Hashtag, Yuri cried over a tiny prick.”

“Hey!” Yuri whined, grabbing for his phone, but unable to reach it before Otabek stuck it in his pocket again. “Yeah, well, you’re a ‘tiny prick’,” he muttered and Otabek faked a gasp of mock offense.

“Are you making fun of my height now that you’re taller?” he demanded, narrowing his eyes at him playfully. “Ice Fairy of Russia,” he said and Yuri glowered.

“Fuck you, and fuck that name,” he said, striding away. “Come on, I want food,” he said, not waiting for Otabek to catch up as he headed down the street towards where they had left the bike. 

When they got there, he whined as he put his helmet on and it touched his right ear, glowering when Otabek didn’t even flinch at the helmet bumping his left ear. “Come on, Yura,” he said, grinning. “I have this great place I wanted to try.”

“Oh you do, huh?” Yuri asked as he climbed on, wrapping his arms around Otabek. “Well then, let’s go.”

~

Dinner was amazing. It was a simple meal, but what was amazing was how much fun he had with Otabek. The whole day had been wonderful and finishing it off giggling over a shared piece of cake was absolutely the best thing ever.

It was only after dinner, when Otabek paid for their food and refused to let Yuri pitch it, that it hit him. The way Otabek had been touching him and joking with him all day, the way he had put all his attention on Yuri, all of it. It said one thing.

“Wait… was all this a fucking _date_?!” Yuri demanded, and Otabek flushed and ducked his head. Yuri didn’t know what the fuck was going on, but he was not okay with this shit. “Otabek,” he said firmly, glaring at him. “Explain yourself.”

“What?” he said innocently. “We had a fun time, didn’t we-“

“You can’t take me on a _date_ ,” he stressed, and Otabek flinched, looking away.

Otabek cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t- I just thought-“ He sighed. “I thought maybe it would be welcome.” He rubbed at his head. “You send really mixed messages, Yura. I don’t know what you want from me-“

Yuri snorted in derision and shoved away from the table. “Fuck you,” he said as he stormed out of the restaurant, not caring how big of a scene he was making. It was getting dark by the time he got outside and the night crowds were out, and he shrugged on his jacket, ignoring the people he ran into as he shoved his way down the sidewalk. 

“Yuri!” He ignored the voice behind him and the sound of Otabek apologizing as he made his way after him. “Yuri, what are you going to do, walk back?!” Yuri kept walking until a hand closed around his wrist and he jerked away, turning to growl at Otabek as his eyes burned with unshed tears.

“Don’t touch me,” he gritted out, getting right in Otabek’s face as he pulled his wrist away. “Leave me alone.”

Otabek looked annoyed and confused. “I don’t know what the fuck I did wrong! You act like you might welcome it, then you back off on me, then you spend all day practically feeling me up on the bike, and when I try and treat the day out more like a date, you flip out on me-“

“You’re disgusting,” Yuri spat, shoving him some as he pushed away from him. 

“Yuri, you cannot walk home-“

“I’LL TAKE THE TRAM!” he shouted angrily over his shoulder. 

The problem was, Otabek followed him until Yuri passed where they left the bike, and then he fucking _drove along_ following him until he got on the tram. Yuri didn’t want Otabek looking out for him, he wanted him to fuck the hell off. It only got worse when he got off the tram nearest Yakov’s house and walked there, only to find bike parked outside. He gritted his teeth, ignoring the desire to leave and go to Yuuri and Victor’s for the night, and pounded up the stairs. When he got inside, Yakov was giving Otabek tea in the kitchen and Yuri walked over and slammed his hands on the table, glaring at Otabek. “Why the fuck did you follow me home?” he demanded, and Yakov gave him a warning look. Yuri sighed and stood up. “Sorry,” he muttered, then glared at Otabek. “My room. _Now_.”

Otabek had been to his room before, during a visit, but now he wasn’t especially welcome. Yuri threw his jacket across the room after he wrestled it off, turning around to cross his arms, shuffling uncomfortable as Otabek stood by the door, carefully shutting it behind him to lean against it. “I wanted to be sure you got home safe,” Otabek started and Yuuri gave a tsk of disbelief. “Yura, I don’t know what has happened tonight, but clearly I’m missing something important.”

Yuri gritted his teeth. “I want you to leave me alone,” he said firmly. “I don’t know what you think about me anymore, and I don’t like what I think you think,” he stressed, shifting in his place because he couldn’t stand still. 

Otabek rolled his eyes in visible frustration. “What is it you think I think-“

Yuri snapped, unable to help himself. “I think you’re an asshole who for some reason decided to ruin our friendship because you want to fuck me, that’s what I think,” he said viciously, his voice low and harsh. “There’s no excuse for suddenly tricking me into going out on a date-“

“I told you, I thought you were interested!” Otabek interjected. “You’ve been giving me seriously mixed signals and I don’t know what went wrong there, but you let me hold you, then you freak out because I saw you naked – and I understand, you were embarrassed and I was too, so I get that – but when you come to fix things being weird, you make up some excuse to bail on hanging out, then when I finally push the issue, you feel me up the whole time we were riding the bike! You held my hand and sat in my lap to get your ear pierced and you seemed on board, and then you freak out on me again!” Otabek pulled at his hair. “I don’t understand-“

“I don’t understand why the fuck you think I would be down with dating somebody else’s boyfriend!” Yuri shouted angrily. His anger faded fast though and the stinging in his eyes became a blurring and before he could stop it, those damn tears started slipping down his cheeks. “That fucking sucks, Otabek,” he whispered harshly. “You’re my _best friend_ , and you- you want to fucking cheat on your girlfriend with me? What, like your _best friend_ is the perfect choice for an easy piece of ass?” He sniffled, scrubbing furiously at his cheeks. “I can’t help how I feel, but you can help treating me like I’m just some easy slut because I can’t help my straying hands.” He whimpered, turning his head so he didn’t have to look at Otabek. “Damn it, Beka.”

Otabek didn’t say anything for the longest, and Yuri almost hoped he would just leave. When he finally spoke, he was a lot louder than Yuri was expecting, so he jumped. “What the _fuck_?” Yuri looked at him quickly and Otabek had his hands on his hips as he made the most confused face, looking at the ceiling. “I am so… puzzled,” he said more calmly. He looked at Yuri and shook his head before saying the very last thing Yuri ever expected. “Where the hell did you get the idea I have a girlfriend?” 

Yuri narrowed his eyes. “Since I visited and you were video chatting with her?” he asked slowly, and Otabek looked startled.

“Zarina?! You think I’m dating _Zarina_?”

“Well… yes,” Yuri said simply, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“Why the hell would you think that?!” Otabek asked, and Yuri raised an eyebrow incredulously. 

“Oh, I don’t know, the ‘I love you’s, maybe? Or the ‘Can’t wait to show you the new “outfit” I bought’,” he said quickly. “Or ‘oh, I miss you, Beka, I can’t wait to see you’,” he said, trying to mimic Zarina’s voice. “The prettiest girl I’ve ever seen is saying shit like that, what the fuck else should I think?”

Otabek spluttered, his face turning an interesting shade of red. “She’s one of my _rink mates_!” he cried. “Also she’s Victor’s age! She’s like an older sister to me, and I do love her and miss her, but not like _that_!” he cried, looking horrified at the thought. “And her outfit is her costume for this coming season!” 

When he finished, they both stood there, totally silent, and Yuri’s entire world seemed to tilt and rearrange itself. He felt weirdly relieved but suddenly very afraid. This was the shift in their friendship. They had laid their cards on the table in that fight, and for better or worse, everything was about to change. Now that all the facts were out, there was no going back to pretending they didn’t know how the other felt about several things. Yuri’s feelings were laid out there, and Otabek had made it clear he picked up on them and had at least tested the waters with reciprocation. Otabek clearly had at least some interest, so that told Yuri that he wasn’t as one-sided in his affections as he had feared he was. But there were so many other questions, about exactly what Otabek did feel, and whether or not Yuri’s feelings were real enough to know what Otabek felt at all.

Otabek was the one to break the silence with a small, almost heartbroken voice. “You thought I was that kind of person, Yura?”

“ _No_ ,” he stressed, but still said softly. He curled his arms around his waist, sitting down on the foot of the bed. “That’s why I was so upset. You have never once struck me as the kind of person who would cheat on someone and definitely not ruin a friendship in doing so. And yet, to me, that’s exactly what it looked like. I couldn’t understand, and I was so upset, because you’re my friend and that was _not_ the kind of person I became friends with.”

Otabek shuffled closer and sat on the chair at the desk in the corner, moving so he was only about five feet away from Yuri, facing him on his own level. “Yura, I would never do that. I promise you, I don’t have a girlfriend or a boyfriend or any other _friends_ even that are our age,” he stressed. “I’m sorry if I implied-“

“No, it wasn’t you, it was all a horrible, horrible misunderstanding,” he said bitterly. Yuri put his hands over his face. “Thank God, for that.”

“Did you really think I would ruin our friendship just to try and have sex with you?” Otabek asked, and Yuri ducked his head.

“It was the only thing I could imagine you were doing,” he said weakly. “Beka, I-“ He swallowed, fighting tears again. “I’ve been so weird because I ‘found out’ you had a girlfriend when I had finally dealt with what I felt and realized you seemed like you might feel something, too. And when I found out you had a girlfriend when I’d worked so hard to prepare to put myself out there, it _hurt_ ,” he whispered. “And then tonight, thinking you didn’t even value our friendship, it hurt even worse.”

“Yura-“

“Wait,” he said softly. Yuri looked at Otabek. “I need to just- just sleep tonight. Get some rest. I have to let my brain filter all this out before we talk about anything else.”

Otabek was looking right at him when he lifted his head, and brown eyes met his green with a steadfastness that felt grounding and so very ‘Otabek’. His answer was also very ‘Otabek’. He nodded. “I understand,” he said firmly.

Yuri nodded and watched as Otabek stood up and started to leave. Suddenly a panicked feeling swelled up inside of him. “Beka,” he said, stopping him. Otabek turned back and Yuri sniffled some. “Can I hug you?” he asked, and Otabek gave him the most heartbroken look and nodded, opening his arms. Yuri flew off the bed and slammed into Otabek, hugging him close. He crushed his eyes shut and pressed his face into Otabek’s neck, arms tight around his shoulders. Otabek held him gently, stroking his back.

“Shhhh, it’s alright, Yura,” he murmured, and Yuri realized he was crying. He let out a rough sob that hurt his throat and he whined painfully. 

“Promise I won’t lose you,” he choked out. “You’re my best friend, Beka, I can’t lose you.”

Otabek sucked in a breath and held him tighter, almost hard enough to hurt. “Never. We’ll figure it out. No matter what, I’m not giving up on our friendship. You’re my best friend, too, after all.”

Yuri nodded and pulled away, sniffling as he looked down into Otabek’s eyes. “Okay,” he said, and Otabek brushed a tear away from his cheek. Yuri whimpered and leaned into the touch, gasping softly when Otabek’s thumb strayed from his cheek to his lip. Yuri opened his eyes and saw a deep determination in Otabek’s eyes. He had eyes like someone far older than he was usually, but now, there was a vulnerability that reminded Yuri that Otabek really was nearly as young as him. Otabek came across like a grown-up so often, so it was easy to forget he was just as much of a kid as Yuri. 

It was easy to forget Yuri wasn’t the only one that was scared.

“Beka,” he breathed, eyes wide as he instinctively leaned closer to him. Otabek held his gaze, eyes shimmering with both fear and longing. Yuri pressed his face more firmly against Otabek’s hand, and Otabek made a strangled sound as he moved until their faces were centimeters apart.

“Yura.” Otabek’s eyes flickered down to Yuri’s lips. “You- you wanted to-“ He swallowed hard. “To sleep on it-“

Yuri knew what he said, but he _needed_ this. “Beka, please,” he whispered, and Otabek gave the subtlest nod, spurring Yuri to close the tiny gap between them and press his lips to Otabek’s.

It was weird. Yuri had never kissed anybody before, so he didn’t know what he had expected, but it was _weird_. It wasn’t a bad weird, but it was still weird. Otabek made it slightly less weird when he actually moved his mouth, coaxing Yuri into copying him. Yuri didn’t know what he was doing, but Otabek’s hands slid down his sides to hold him at the narrowest part of his waist and lean up into the kiss, and that felt nice. Otabek being shorter than him was still a surprise sometimes. He had to tilt his head down and Otabek tilt his up so they could kiss. 

By the time Yuri moved his hand to curl around the back of Otabek’s neck, he could admit, kissing was nice. It was still weird, but it felt good. When Otabek finally pulled way, both of them taking a moment to breathe, Yuri opened his eyes and saw wory in Otabek’s eyes. “Was that strange?” Otabek asked. “You’re kind of stiff. Are you- are you thinking maybe we’re friends and kissing is weird?” 

Yuri smiled bashfully at how awkward Otabek was being now, and he shook his head, looking down. “No. I- I liked it.”

Otabek relaxed. “Oh. Oh, good.” He cleared his throat. “You were just really still so I thought maybe you didn’t like it.”

Yuri looked away, releasing Otabek’s shoulder to tuck a stray strand of hair behind his ear. “I- um- I never did that before. Kissing. So it’s kind of weird. But good weird,” he said quickly, still avoiding Otabek’s gaze for fear he would turn bright red. 

“Oh.” Otabek’s voice made him look up and he saw Otabek was blushing, too. “Oh, that’s okay, then. That’s good. Good weird is better than not liking it.”

Yuri smiled shyly. “Yeah, I liked it.”

Otabek smiled, his cheeks still pink, and he looked so cute Yuri felt a swell of affection he hadn’t felt earlier. “Nice.” He carefully removed his hands from Yuri’s waist. “I- I should probably get going. But, tomorrow,” he said, backing away. “Tomorrow we should- should talk. About everything. And- and figure things out.”

Yuri managed a small smirk, trying to be himself even if he was still super embarrassed. “And maybe try kissing again?” he suggested, knowing he would embarrass Otabek more.

As long as Otabek was just as embarrassed as himself, it was okay. 

Otabek smiled brightly, and nodded. “Maybe,” he said, running into the desk as he backed away. “Fuck, shit, ow-“ He rubbed his hip and cleared his throat. “Goodnight, Yura.”

“Goodnight, Beka,” he said softly, voice gentle as he watched Otabek adorably scrabble to find the doorknob without stopping looking at him. It was the cutest thing ever. Otabek was normally so cool and collected, so to see him flustered – especially knowing he did it – was the best feeling.

“Ha, yes, door.” Otabek muttered awkward bits of words before finally yanking the door open and flying out of the room. “Bye!” he said tightly before rushing out of the room. Yuri listened to him splutter something to Yakov on his way out, and it was only when he heard the front door shut that Yuri fell onto his bed, arms and legs splayed out as he grinned at the ceiling.

Holy shit, what a day. 

~

Yuuri was still awake, cuddling Makkachin and chatting with Phichit, when Otabek got home. He wandered past, seemingly in a daze, and Yuuri watched curiously as Otabek actually ran into the coffee table and tumbled to the floor right in front of him. 

Otabek cursed but just lay there for a moment. 

“Are you drunk?” Yuuri asked curiously, and Otabek spluttered in surprise, sitting up so fast he rammed the coffee table with his elbow.

“Ow!” Otabek blushed and got up, rubbing his elbow. “Sorry, sorry.” He lowered his head. “Um, no, I haven’t been drinking.”

Yuuri raised an eyebrow. “Are you okay, then? You’re acting strange.”

“I spent all day with Yuri,” Otabek said, and Yuuri lightened some at the thought they had made up after their awkward situation. “Oh crap,” he said suddenly. “I left all the things I bought in Yakov’s kitchen,” he said, putting a hand to his forehead.

Yuuri chuckled curiously. “So you went shopping and then went back to Yakov’s? What’s got you so oddly acting, then?”

Otabek actually _smiled_ , a big, bright smile, which was unusual for the usually reserved boy, and he ducked his head. “I had a fight with Yuri, but now everything makes sense, and I think things are okay now.”

That was a shock to Yuuri, who figured Otabek would be terribly uncomfortable to find out his friend had a crush on him. “Really? I thought it would make things weirder if Yuri ever came clean.”

Otabek looked up at him with a frown. “What? Why? Wait-“ He held up a hand to stop Yuuri. “Did you _know_?” he asked, and Yuuri kept his mouth shut, which was as much an admission as saying it. Otabek groaned. “I wish you had told me! I didn’t know he thought I had a girlfriend!” he complained. “If I knew what was wrong, I could’ve talked to him about it a long time ago!”

“You don’t have a girlfriend?” Yuuri asked in confusion, and Otabek shook his head rapidly.

“No! And I didn’t know he thought I did until I tried to take him out on a nice date and he got really mad and yelled at me in public,” he said, and Yuuri’s eyes widened.

That made a lot more sense. “So are you guys okay now?”

Otabek nodded. “Yeah, now that I understand the mix up.” He yawned, and stretched. “I’m tired. I’m going to sleep. I need to get up early to go get my things from Yakov’s.”

Yuuri smirked as he watched him float towards his room on a cloud. He had a feeling Yurio was gonna be really happy tomorrow, too. “Goodnight, then,” he called, and then looked down at Makkachin, who lay in his lap. “We humans are silly, huh? Yes we are,” he cooed, ruffling his furry little face as he leaned in to kiss him. “Silly, silly humans.”

~

It wasn’t that Yuuri wasn’t used to waking up to someone staring at him. One couldn’t live with Victor Nikiforov and avoid that. No, it was that, this time, the person staring at him was _not_ the one whose arms were around his waist. 

He barely managed not to scream and wake Victor up when he opened his eyes and found a pair of green eyes inches from his, but he did jump enough that Victor mumbled sleepily and snuggled into his chest. “What are you doing?!” Yuuri hissed at Yurio, who had just been watching him sleep.

Yurio didn’t seem bother. “I’m trying to figure out how to wake you up without waking him up,” he said, looking at Victor. “Has anybody ever told you you’re the little one in your relationship?” he asked in a whisper. “Why are you the one snuggling him?”

Yuuri raised an eyebrow. “Am I having a dream? Is that why Yurio is asking me why I’m not the small spoon?” he asked blearily. 

“I need to talk to you,” Yurio insisted and Yuuri glared. 

“Yeah, well, Victor is naked, so you could’ve waited!”

Yurio shrugged. “Like I’ve never seen Victor naked before,” he dismissed. “Whatever, get up and come meet me in the living room.”

When Yuuri went to join Yurio, he saw could tell Otabek wasn’t there, which made him frown. “Why are you here if Otabek has left already?” 

“I told you,” Yurio said, watching him go to the kitchen and start coffee. “I need to talk to you.”

Yuuri hummed. “Okay, what about?”

Yurio was practically vibrating in his seat, so Yuuri wasn’t too surprised when he blurted out, “Otabek doesn’t have a girlfriend, and he took me on a date, and then we got in a fight, and then we kissed!”

Yuuri frowned. “Well you had an eventful day,” he said, and Yurio glared.

“Look, Piggy, I need help!” He fidgeted. “What do I do?”

Yuuri yawned. “About what?” he asked. 

Yurio glared. “About Otabek, obviously! My best friend likes me and we kissed, what the hell do I do?!”

Yuuri blinked slowly. “I’m confused. Just… keep kissing your best friend who likes you?” he suggested. He really wasn’t awake enough for all of this.

“But he’s my best friend!” Yurio said so fast his voice squeaked. “What if we date and it doesn’t work and it ruins our friendship?! What if we _don’t_ date and it ruins our friendship?!”

Yuuri smiled slowly. “Yurio,” he said patiently. “Look at me.” Yurio looked at him and Yuuri gestured to himself. “Think really hard about who you’re talking to, and tell me, do you think I’m any help at all for this situation?”

Yurio scrutinized him before sighing. “True. Your dumb ass never dated anybody other than Victor and you got engaged in less than a year knowing him.” He sighed. “I don’t know what to do. I just don’t want to lose Otabek. He’s my best friend and I’m scared I’ll do something wrong and he’ll stop wanting to be my friend.”

Yuuri nodded, understanding. “If you don’t think it’s worth it, then maybe you guys can stay friends.”

“But he’s so cute and kissing was fun,” Yurio added, laying his chin on his hands. “We barely kissed, really, but I wanna do it again. Also Otabek’s stomach muscles feel really nice.” 

Yuuri scrunched up his nose. “Whoa, you did say _barely_ kissed, right? How do you know what his stomach feels like?”

Yurio blushed and ducked his head. “He rented a motorbike and I can’t help it, my arms were around him to hang on and his abs are _right there_ ,” he said, looking ashamed of himself. 

Yuuri couldn’t blame him, he totally would do the same thing in his situation. “Well… are abs and kisses worth risking your friendship? Or is your friendship strong enough that, if things don’t work, you can go back to being friends?” he asked. “I’m pretty sure that even if Victor and I didn’t work as a married couple, we’ll always be each other’s best friend. I’m not at all afraid of losing him, because Victor and I could never go a day without speaking after so long living in each other’s back pockets,” he pointed out. “We’re a pair. Married or not, we’re stuck together for good.”

“Well shit.” Yurio sighed, flopping forward. “I hate this. This is dumb. Why can’t I just kiss a cute boy and not have to agonize over it? Why couldn’t I get a crush on someone who isn’t my best friend? Life is useless sometimes.”

Yuuri snickered and rolled his eyes. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to kiss your cute best friend, either. I do it every day.”

“Ew, no,” Yurio stood up suddenly. “I don’t want to hear a word about you and dumb Victor. Goodbye! I’m going to the rink to avoid Otabek there instead of here.”

After he left, Yuuri got his coffee and went back to bed, deciding to sit and drink his coffee while snuggling Victor until he woke up. 

~

Yuri avoided Otabek all day until finally, he left the rink, and Otabek was waiting for him outside. “Um, hey,” he said, blushing at the memory of last night again. 

Otabek smiled and stepped closer. “Hey,” he replied, leaning in to press a kiss to Yuuri’s cheek. “Is this okay? Can I do that to say hello, now?” he asked, and Yuri flushed a deep red but nodded.

“I think we should date,” Yuri blurted out. He hadn’t expected this conversation to go like this, but Otabek kissing his cheek threw him off and all his logical reasoning flew out the window. “You’re cute and I like you and we should be boyfriends. Best friends is awesome, but boyfriends has more kissing, so that sounds like the better option.” He ducked his head in shame at his verbal diarrhea. “Oh God, I really had a whole conversation planned, shit, just ignore me and leave me to die of shame-“

“Okay.” Yuri looked up in surprise at Otabed, who was smiling very widely. 

“What?”

Otabek grinned. “We should be boyfriends,” he agreed, sliding his hand into Yuri’s. “I really like you, in a more than best friends way, and I think we could be happy.”

Yuri beamed. “You think we can make it work? I don’t want to lose you, because you’re my best friend, but my feelings are… something more.”

“Shouldn’t boyfriends just be best friends who like to make out?” Otabek joked and Yuri couldn’t help but giggle.

“Well if you ask Katsudon, yes,” he said with a shrug. He looked into Otabek’s eyes and positively bounced with happiness. “Do you really want to be my boyfriend?” he asked, and Otabek nodded seriously.

“Yes, Yura,” he said, tugging him closer by the hand. “I only worry because I’ll be leaving soon,” he said, and Yuri’s stomach twisted painfully. Otabek bit his lip. “Do you want to wait? Maybe we should try out the long distance thing before we make any commitments,” he suggested.

Yuri swallowed hard at the thought of Otabek with someone else, but he knew it was only pragmatic. “I won’t see you again until we manage to get the same assignments for the Grand Prix, and we might not get the same ones at all. It might not be until the final.” He lowered his gaze. “What do you think?”

Otabek took a moment before speaking, and when he did, it was with a shy smile. “I’d rather spend the next few months being your boyfriend,” he said softly and Yuri’s heart fluttered. “But it’s up to you-“

“Fuck waiting, let’s be boyfriends,” Yuri said quickly, throwing his arms around Otabek’s shoulders. He hugged him close, sighing in relief when Otabek tightly hugged him back.

“Are you sure?”

Yuri nodded against Otabek’s hair. “Yeah. I am.” His insides warmed and he felt lighter than he had in days. He pulled back to look down into Otabek’s eyes and he couldn’t help the giant smile that filled his face. “I’ll miss you when you’re gone, but you’re still not leaving for a few days. I’d rather hang out with my boyfriend for a few days than ignore the awkwardness with my best friend for a few days because we both want to be boyfriends but are too chicken-shit to do it.”

Otabek grinned. “I like that idea, too.”

They looked at each other for a long moment before Yuri couldn’t help it anymore. “Can we kiss now, because you’re so cute right now, and I- Mmm!” Otabek didn’t bother waiting for him to stop talking before he pressed their lips together. Yuri relaxed and sighed through his nose as their lips moved together.

Yuri was really starting to get why Katsudon and the Old Fart liked doing this kissing thing so much. He planned to kiss Otabek as many times as he could before he left, to make up for all the time they would go without kissing while Otabek was gone. 

~

Victor nudged Yuuri and nodded to where Yurio and Otabek were leaning together and whispering to each other while Otabek’s arm rested around Yurio’s waist. Yuuri grinned at Victor and leaned in to press a kiss to his nose.

“I wonder if we look that disgustingly cute,” Yuuri mused under his breath and Victor chuckled.

However, before he could answer, Yurio turned his way, a devious smirk on his face. “You’re just disgusting, not cute like us,” he said, clearly having heard his comment. “Right, Beka?” he asked, batting his eyelashes at Otabek.

Otabek ducked his head but smile. “Whatever you say, Yura.” 

Victor laughed. “Wow! He’s trained well already! Good job, Yurio, it took me weeks to get Yuuri to agree with me without hesitation!”

“That’s because you’re not as cute as Yura,” Otabek said quickly and Yurio beamed in a way that made his usual scowl entirely unimaginable on the bright, sweet face of the boy in front of them.

That innocence faded when his verbal response was, “Damn straight I’m cuter than that old fuck, let’s be serious here.”

Yuuri sighed good-naturedly and shook his head. It was a start at least.


End file.
